A group of citizens is going to create a movement in defense of the Tavira Agrarian Experimentation Center and to stop it being crossed by a road, by the public company Infraestruturas de Portugal, using «all the legal means at its disposal».
The movement follows news of IP's intention to build a 20-meter-wide road on land currently belonging to this experimental center, where there is a collection of traditional fruit trees composed of endemic Algarve varieties that, in some cases, only there they can be found.
This work will be carried out as part of the process of electrification of the Algarve Line between Faro and Vila Real de Santo António.
The fruit tree collection of the Algarve Regional Directorate of Agriculture has been, moreover, one of Tavira's calling cards as a community representing Portugal in the bid that led to UNESCO's recognition of the Mediterranean Diet as an Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
«This Citizens' Movement for the Defense of CEA Tavira, intends to alert, inform, form critical opinion and fight, by all legal means at its disposal, the future project of building a 20 meter wide road, 625 meters long along of the CEA Tavira land, as part of the electrification project of the Algarve railway”, summarize the members of the citizens' group from Tavira and from other municipalities in the Algarve.
For now, a demonstration is scheduled in front of the center on March 13, at 17 pm, in front of CEA Tavira, as part of the Global Climate March.
The project, "which also includes the inclusion of two perpendicular intersections opening a precedent to the construction of a future urban fabric, was decided behind closed doors, by public entities and regional and central government policy makers, without a transparent consultation and due public discussion».
This despite having already been subject to an Environmental Impact Study, which has already been in public consultation. However, the existence of this participatory process was not publicized, which led to it going unnoticed by the population, accuse members of the movement.
What is at stake, they warn, is «the disintegration of an agricultural field for scientific experimentation, with a collection of fruit trees that the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) itself classifies as “unique”, as well as the destruction of its five laboratories. At issue is the partial expropriation of land, which today belongs to CEA Tavira, and the consequent fragmentation of this property».
“In short, the practical functioning and scientific viability of this center, which, in the future, will be subject to the most varied types of pollution and speculation”, believes the movement.
«The importance of this center is immeasurable, as in addition to being a reservoir of regional fruit biodiversity, it carries out studies that, as the EIA itself indicates, are related to the Mediterranean Diet. We are talking about a space that developed pioneering and unique researches in the country in the field of biological agriculture, and that for decades hosted an agrarian school», defend the citizens who mobilized in favor of the CEA of Tavira.
The movement also highlighted the contribution that the center gave «to the experimental development of agricultural practices that aim to mitigate the impacts of global warming, through ecological solutions within the scope of the Intermunicipal Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change, at a time when this issue it is on the agenda of the world agendas».
«If this project proceeds as planned, we will certainly see, and soon, these spaces will be urbanized, we will witness the birth of a Hotel, a transport terminal and, icing on the cake, the irony of a Mediterranean Diet centre, everything , certainly, for the benefit of development», conclude the members of the movement.
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