The Citizens' Movement for the Defense of the Center for Agrarian Experimentation (CEA) in Tavira will remain "vigilant", despite the Negative Environmental Impact Statement (DIA) announced to the project of a road that would cross this property, where there is a unique collection of traditional Algarve fruit trees.
The Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, in a response to the PSD Parliamentary Group, revealed that «the Environmental Impact Statement of the project now states that there are no favorable conditions to issue a decision in favor of the technical solution presented by Infraestruturas de Portugal».
Despite the assurance given by the government official, in the Assembly of the Republic, there is still no official document attesting this, not even on the websites of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) or the Participa portal.
“If the situation reported regarding the DIA is confirmed, we must remain vigilant and continue to fight for the safeguard of the CEA. We have to ensure that no other road, alternatively, will pass through that space», considered the movement, in a press release.
For the group of citizens, «it is essential to build a participatory dynamic to weave a multidisciplinary rehabilitation strategy of that space, of utmost importance for the region and for the city, with a focus on practices of regenerative agriculture, biological and agro-ecological agriculture, promoting vegetable gardens community and free access to seedlings of regional varieties, with the guarantee that they will not be patented, as they are a heritage and heritage of the whole of Humanity»
At the same time, it is necessary "to make the ecological management of water, so that space is a guarantor of water and food sovereignty."
“By defending the CEA, we are fighting to save biodiversity. A system with a high rate of biodiversity can respond correctly to climate change and have a very important climate regulating function itself, keeping conditions constant, alleviating global warming and protecting our region from the high risk of hydrogeological disturbance, which, at this time, , it is already felt», added the movement.
As for the collection of traditional fruit trees, a natural heritage that inspired, to a large extent, the struggle of these citizens in defense of the CEA of Tavira, they play a central role in this project, since «the varieties defined as indigenous or local are characterized by a they adapt well to the environmental conditions of the region and have less need for external resources such as water and fertilizers. They are more rustic than most “standard” varieties and more resistant to environmental stress. Its ability to obtain better results in our region, to which it has adapted for so many years, represents an important agricultural resource and a fundamental tool for food self-sufficiency».
«We emphasize that, if confirmed, this non-approval of the project by the APA is a rejection of the oscillating position of the Regional Director of Agriculture, who one week said one thing and another week presented a totally different speech. It is also a disapproval of the attitude of the Municipality of Tavira, which decided behind closed doors and failed to understand that the crossing would fragment and destroy the ecological, scientific, pedagogical, cultural and agricultural potential of that common space", concluded the movement, which took the opportunity to highlight "the importance of active citizenship, which in this, as in other cases, was the engine of public disclosure of the situation and awareness of the damage it entails".
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