Almargem considers that the project of the Monte da Ribeira Tourist Lot, in the municipality of São Brás de Alportel, which has been under public consultation, should not go ahead because this would represent repeating, in the interior of the Algarve, «the errors of the coast».
The environmental association «considers that this undertaking generically replicates the 'development' model that has pressured the Algarve coast and in many cases contributed to discredit the region's environment and identity, which are fundamental to the preservation and perpetuity of the territory, which are beginning to be imported into the interior'.
With an offer of 909 beds, of which 816 in a tourist village, 81 in an aparthotel, and the remaining 12 in tourist villas, the Monte da Ribeira Touristic Lot in São Brás de Alportel is located near the town of Arimbo and next to the Ribeira do Alportel, just over 300 meters from the Special Conservation Zone (ZEC)/Caldeirão Community Interest Site, and will interrupt one of the ecological corridors recognized by PROT-Algarve.
"These ecological corridors are areas of high ecological importance where it is intended to ensure the continuity of ecological processes between the nuclear areas and between the interior and coastal territories, in this case integrated in the so-called 'Southern fluvial corridors' - linking the southern coastal strip to the nuclear areas of Serra and Barrocal, through river valleys», says Almargem.
The association considers that, using the term 'nature tourism', the project 'replicates the unsustainable model that has contributed to the environmental degradation of various areas, in particular on the coast, but also inland, and consequently to the disqualification of the landscape and identity of the territory".
As such, Almargem considers that the «appreciation of projects of this type needs more attention, otherwise their development will jeopardize the protection of the territory and the sustainability of the tourist activity itself».
«The profile of this project seems to be of an eminently real estate nature, possibly speculative, and its dimension is not compatible with the carrying capacity of this territory».
Supported in the “Tourism Development Center (NDT) Urbanization Plan for the Monte da Ribeira Dam” approved in 2008, the realization of this project “falls far short” of the objectives of this plan of “maintaining and preserving environmental areas with spontaneous or important for the natural balance”.
This happens, according to Almargem, “perhaps due to a defect in the characterization of this plane itself”.
Due to its location, but also its magnitude, Almargem understands that this Municipal Plan for Spatial Planning (PMOT), which was approved more than 10 years ago, “is clearly not in tune with the extensive legal framework published in the meantime, namely the European Convention on Landscape, and the new PROT Algarve (approved in 2007), so it should be re-evaluated».
Almargem therefore considers that both this plan and the subsequent one “should be well rethought in order to create a truly sustainable development, which can have a dynamic role in the surrounding area and possibly stimulate the repopulation of several small abandoned agglomerates, restoring the the human load necessary for its safeguarding and regeneration”.
Therefore, the environmental association “considers that the project under consideration must obtain an unfavorable reasoned opinion. It is urgent to change the paradigm of tourism models existing in the Algarve region, protect ecological corridors, and promote truly sustainable nature tourism».
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