The project for the construction of a tourist development in Quinta da Rocha, in Ria de Alvor, in Portimão, is being subject to a new public consultation until the 17th of October, after having been reformulated by its promoters, the new owners of a company already condemned for environmental crimes in this protected area of Portimo.
At issue is the construction of a tourist development that includes «a rural hotel and nine units of Country Houses, totaling 64 beds» and «consists essentially in the reconstruction and alteration of a set of pre-existing buildings», according to Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission. Documentation to be consulted on the portal Participate.
The project's Environmental Impact Assessment was originally for public consultation in March, but was eventually suspended by the CCDR “so that the developer could consider introducing modifications as well as additional impact mitigation measures”.
The company, which proposes to build a project of the “Tourism in Rural Space” typology in Quinta da Rocha, Water View SA, is nothing more, nothing less than the successor da Butwell – Trading, Services and Investments, which changed its name in 2016, after having been sentenced to pay a high fine and restore the natural values that it destroyed over the years.
In early 2016, Butwell, owned by businessman Aprígio Santos, saw rejected by the Portimão Chamber its project for the Tourist Development Center (NDT) of the Ria de Alvor.
At the time, the executive and opposition from Portimão were unanimous in voting in favor of the proposal of the jury for the public tender, which recommended the exclusion of Butwell Trading, Serviços e Investimentos SA, and which was the only competitor, considering the proposal “unacceptable”.
Meanwhile, the shareholders of now Water View "have changed, as I understand it, in its entirety," he told the Sul Informação Marcial Felgueiras, from the association A Rocha, who early on took on a fight for the environmental values of Quinta da Rocha, which proved to be decisive for the preservation of priority habitats and other natural values that exist there.
It was the new owners of the company who presented the proposal, which is now under public consultation for ten working days. In this case, it is “a completely different project” and which, in A Rocha's view, “seems to be much more interesting”.
“We have no problem with the concept as it stands. There is a part in the agricultural area that, from our point of view, could be different, but it is not the most problematic part».
«Where there are problems is in the part of the conditions. Some of the conditions that exist on the ground and others of a legal nature were not listed in the project, which, from our point of view, makes it illegal», believes Marcial Felgueiras.
Deep down, A Rocha fears that this project is “a kind of Trojan horse for other things”.
“The big problem with this project in the past – now, after the reformulation, we don't know – are the conditions that were removed and that, yes, could open the door to a different future project. It may happen that the current owners sell the property already with approvals and with the conditions removed and that the new owner asks to do a different project, but without these limitations», he explained.
The conditions that are not mentioned in the proposal that is being subject to the Environmental Impact Assessment are the «priority conservation habitats that are recognized by the Portuguese State and the European Union», as well as the margin line, the terrestrial protection zone - which, at the bottom, is the line 500 meters from the water's edge of the Ria de Alvor.
In the first case, one of the conditions is related to the protected plant algarvian linaria, whose presence at Quinta da Rocha led the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Loulé to ban, in 2012, performing any operation, even agricultural, that destroys it.
As for the terrestrial protection zone, «it was poorly defined in the initial project», despite «it is clearly identified on a page managed by the CCDR of the Algarve». The line in question “clearly stipulates the extent to which new construction is not permitted. By deleting this line, the limitation is eliminated».
“Now we will have to read everything again, to see what is new in this second phase of the consultation and only after that will we be able to make an informed decision. I'm curious to know if these conditions that we pointed out were corrected or not», confesses Marcial Felgueiras.
In 2006, Associação A Rocha, which is headquartered in the Ria de Alvor, made the first complaint to the authorities about the destruction, by machines at the service of Butwell, of vast areas of marsh and other vegetation in Quinta da Rocha, areas under the Natura Network due to the importance of their habitats.
Despite the accusations that followed, and the instigation of at least nine administrative infraction proceedings by the Commission for Regional Coordination and Development, the owners of Quinta da Rocha continued to carry out the mining, harrowing and removal of vegetation, altering vast areas of the property.
One of these mines was even being carried out at the end of the afternoon of a day in November 2007 when leaders of the A Rocha Association and the League for the Protection of Nature visited the site, accompanied by senior officials from the Nature Conservation Institute – the director of the Department of Hazardous Areas Management of the South João Alves and the director of the Department of Hazardous Areas of the Wetlands Maria João Burnay -, who immediately witnessed the illegal works in progress there.
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