The speech may have changed, but the practices (yet) haven't. How has the Government dealt with the Algarve, in environmental matters, in the last four years? Have there been significant changes? The model "à la concrete mixer” was changed? And for the future? What does it matter to change? These questions are the motto for an analysis of what was the last legislature, by two Algarve personalities linked to the world of the environment. This is a ride on the indicators of the by date and when the October 6th Legislative Elections are fast approaching.
O Sul Informação he spoke with Anabela Santos, biologist and director of the Almargem association, and with Gonçalo Duarte Gomes, landscape architect and chairman of the Algarve Regional Section of the Portuguese Association of Landscape Architects.
Both were unanimous in considering that there were no "significant changes" in recent years.
«We still see many attacks taking place, at an environmental level, in the Algarve. O chip still seems to be little focused on these environmental issues. The differences were few», says Anabela Santos.
Gonçalo Gomes adds: «The Algarve is indifferent to changing political cycles, because the Governments, successively, always neglect the region. If, in environmental matters, policies have to be general, there has never been an effort to adapt them to the regional reality. There were no fracturing differences in this legislature».
In the opinion of the landscape architect, the «big issue is the territorial ordering and the model that is designed».
"This has been defined for decades, with the massification of the coast, mostly devoted to tourist activity, while we are witnessing the abandonment of the interior", he says.
But has that changed in recent years?
“The model has not been altered in the slightest. There was an expectation, after what were the fire tragedies in 2017, that something would change, but nothing happened. There was the report of the Independent Technical Commission, which focused on the issues of the territorial model and a project that is inclusive of the interior. But nothing has changed», he shoots, bluntly.
Gonçalo Duarte Gomes points to the great fire in Monchique, of August 2018, as a “screaming” example. In those eight days of flames alone, around 27 thousand hectares were consumed.
“There are structural problems that could not be resolved in a year. The fault is not exclusive to this Government, but if we look at the measures taken and the policies that have been designed, nothing happened. It cannot be said that there has been a reversal of the paradigm», he stresses.
“Right after the fire in Monchique, we had the prime minister here to announce the economic requalification plan for the Serra de Monchique, something that never happened. They left the municipality to the beasts in this process», he also considers.
All these issues are also related to the abandonment of the interior and the rural world itself, in a region increasingly limited to the coast – and to tourism.
«The bet on the interior must exist and with effective measures. I think there was a lot created on paper, but without concrete support measures. And I ask: is it worth it to bet on more tourist beds? Does the region have the capacity to receive more tourists? The truth is that we still have our interior all underprivileged», considers, for her part, Anabela Santos.
Gonçalo Duarte Gomes tunes to the same tuning fork. «The rural space remains to its fate. We have not witnessed any policy of economic and social revitalization of the interior. There is always that speech that we have to be able to captivate people to go to the interior, but we don't see anything happening», he says.
It's just that people only stay in the innermost territories if there are effective conditions to do so. “It is unthinkable that we are talking about revitalizing the countryside when we continue to close schools or when there are no responses and health systems. If there are no conditions, what are we talking about? It's a fantasy. We make beautiful plans, but without foundation», he also considers.
And, without people, it is the landscape itself that changes. This is another very current theme, in the regional reality, with the proliferation of intensive agriculture. The last few years have been «more painful» than the previous ones, witnessing a «profound» change in the landscape nature of the Algarve.
The traditional dryland orchard, which is even one of the bases of the Mediterranean Diet, has been “devastated” to make way for “intensive irrigation crops”.
«In municipalities like Tavira, there has been an intense conversion. We've already had a time for red berries, now it seems like avocado is in fashion. We are witnessing, in this equation, a complete omission of the Regional Directorate of Agriculture and, inherently, of the Government itself», accuses Gonçalo Gomes.
In the opinion of Anabela Santos, in the coming years, this issue of intensive agriculture really needs “a lot of attention” from the competent authorities. “The rainfed orchard is abandoned, but if there were really incentives and political will, maybe people would bet on this culture”, he considers.
Now, this paradigm shift towards intensive production brings another problem: that of water and the uses we make of this increasingly scarce resource.
For example, avocado crops are "highly demanding in terms of watering". This in a region where dams are at low levels and where much of the territory is in a situation of extreme or severe drought.
Second data from the 6th of September, from the company Águas do Algarve, in the Odelouca reservoir, the percentage of available water reached only 24,25% of the total useful volume. In Odeleite, it was 32,22%, and in Beliche, it was 28,47%.
For Gonçalo Gomes, the region has “maintained a careless attitude towards the use of water. Whether in the uses it gives it or in the way it manages it».
«In the choices we make for gardens, we continue to invest heavily in lawns and types that use a lot of water, without this being justified», he explains.
According to data from Pordata, in the Algarve, the water distributed by the public network increased by 42.352 cubic meters in 1995, to 48.811, in 2017. As for the issue of water losses, «continues to be of concern in some municipalities».
According to figures from the Regulatory Authority for Water and Waste Services, in the Algarve the regional average of water losses is 183 liters per day.
This happens in a region that is heading towards «the worsening of the drought situations», in the opinion of Gonçalo Gomes.
“Not necessarily because of the lack of precipitation, but also because of the distribution of that rain throughout the year. Let's imagine that we even had a good year of precipitation in the Algarve. If it is all concentrated in a short period of time, it will only tell us one thing: the soil will absorb one part, the dams another, but much will be lost», he explains.
In the opinion of the landscape architect, we are in the presence of «a classic problem in Portugal». “We only care about managing when we no longer have the resource. Now that it is said that the water reserves will only last until the end of the year, what are we thinking about managing? This should have happened when the storages were bigger», he criticizes.
In this detailed analysis of the panorama of environmental issues, both Gonçalo Gomes and Anabela Santos note that, despite the few practical changes, the discourse of the competent entities is today different.
«Municipal Councils, for example, are more receptive and more sensitive in talking about environmental issues», says the biologist and director of Almargem. But now is the time “to move from words to actions”, he adds promptly.
«The municipalities started to get a little more attention, at least in the speeches. There we have a positive evolution, for example in the attention to fires. People started to talk about landscape issues and the climate change discourse entered the political agenda, but in practice, I think it takes a long time to have an impact», reinforces Gonçalo Gomes.
In view of Pordata's data, Municipalities' expenditures in the areas of environmental management and protection increased. They were 25,329 million euros in 1993 and increased to 41,565 million in 2017.
The municipality of Loulé is pointed out by both interviewees as an example, but they also emphasize that it is necessary to be coherent. In this equation, the financing model of the municipalities does not help either: “they continue to depend a lot on building”.
«In coastal municipalities, for example, we do not see that the territorial models that are being designed contemplate adaptation to climate change. We continue to witness the intentions of massification of the coast. All that are sensitive areas of the geophysical point are still desirable for massive construction», says Gonçalo Gomes.
The landscape architect also points out the «dendrophobia» (fear de trees ou aversion to trees) which seems to be common to so many municipalities.
“Trees seem to have become a proscribed element. The City Councils manage green spaces in a perfectly disastrous way and are depleting the cities' vegetable capital», he considers.
But over the past four years, there has been a major theme that has dominated the environmental – and even social and political – panorama of the Algarve: the exploitation of hydrocarbons.
“It was the question of the last few years. If there are targets, due to climate change, assumed by the Government, how have we even thought about oil exploration?”, asks Anabela Santos.
Gonçalo Gomes goes further and even accuses the Government of having behaved "very badly with the Algarve". “This was a remarkable process, in this legislature, for the region. There is talk of decarbonising the economy and betting on alternative energy sources, there is the issue of the Paris Agreement, and then this idea of oil extraction, which is completely opposite, came up», he says.
But all of this contributed, in the understanding of Anabela Santos and Gonçalo Gomes, to a movement of protest «as it has not been seen for a long time».
“A very intense regional awareness was generated and this was a positive sign from the civil society”, considers the landscape architect.
For Anabela Santos, the PALP (Platform Algarve Livre de Petróleo) was largely responsible for «uniting so many people around this fight».
“In the beginning, you would hardly think that it would be possible to do anything, but the truth is that we did it. And, yes, we have noticed, in recent years, a greater involvement of people in these issues of the environment and land use planning», he adds.
On 6 October, the Portuguese were once again called to elect the deputies to the Assembly of the Republic and, therefore, a Government. Be it from the left, the right or the centre, what needs to change in these environmental issues for the Algarve?
In Gonçalo Gomes' opinion, the key is to learn, once and for all, “to respect biophysical limits”.
“Natural systems, just like a person's organism, have some fundamental systems and we, if we want to have a healthy region, we have to respect those limits,” he says.
“It's not about doing nothing, in terms of construction, for example. It's about knowing what we can actually do in a balanced way. We have the massification of coastal occupation, even against the backdrop of rising average sea levels. The Algarve does not have an industry and it cannot be said that it is a major hub for generating emissions, but we have to do everything in terms of adapting to climate change. Our exposure is tremendous», he adds.
In this sense, the investment in renewable energies is also strategic, namely in the tidal one, an area “still little explored”.
«The Algarve had a reality which were the tide mills. I cannot understand why we are not yet studying the potential of these mills for obtaining energy. The University of Algarve is already doing some research work, but I think this hypothesis is taking a long time to be embraced by the institutions», he exemplifies.
Anabela Santos is also categorical: the changes that may exist depend "on the deputies we are going to elect".
“It is a pity that sometimes we see some inactivity of parliamentarians in the Algarve on these issues. I would like the Algarve Government and parliamentarians to have sensitivity, in the next legislature, to environmental issues», he considers.
But is there still time to change the paradigm and correct mistakes?
“Human capacity is tremendous. We'll see. To me, it seems to me that everything that is to avoid the massification of the coast is cash in cash because, whatever we put there, we will have to take away», says Gonçalo Gomes.
“I think we're all a little fed up with concrete. We need to turn this page, despite the problems we now have with housing. I think that, more and more, people like to enjoy the spaces, nature, and, also for that reason, they get more information and become more aware of these environmental issues», concludes Anabela Santos.
Infographics: Nuno Costa | Sul Informação
This content integrates the project "Network Elections 2019", from which the Sul Informação is part.
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