"There has never been any approved project for here and, therefore, no vested rights", guaranteed the minister of Environment and Climate Action, this Tuesday, in relation to Lagoa dos Salgados, on the coast of the municipality of Silves, where The creation of a nature reserve begins today.
In his statements to journalists, minister João Pedro Matos Fernandes was very clear: "there was never any licensing" of the project for a development with 4000 tourist beds, including hotels, villas and a golf course.
"Therefore, as there was never any licensing, our understanding is that obviously there is no acquired right", assured the governor.
The future Natural Reserve of Lagoa dos Salgados, whose public discussion of the proposal for its creation begins this Thursday, December 9, covers a vast area of 400 hectares encompassing this lagoon area, the Pêra marshes (or Alcantarilha…), the dune cordon along Praia Grande and the old agricultural land between the two wetlands.
And it is precisely in relation to this extensive strip of land that some sand jamming gear the creation of this new national protected area. The land is owned by a real estate fund linked to the Millenium BCP.
O Sul Informação you know that they were barely aware of the intention of the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF) to classify the area as a protected area, the promoters of this mega venture rushed to land two legal opinions defending alleged acquired rights at the table of jurists of the Ministry of the Environment.
The point is that, in 2013, the mega-enterprise project was even subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment, having then received a favorable environmental impact statement, but conditional.
And conditioned on what? Conditioned on the presentation of a concrete project that reconciled the natural values in presence and the urban planning intention of the developer. Well, despite the greening of the project made in 2017, which even led to the change of its name to eco resort, the prosecutor was never able to guarantee this compatibility, so the central administration rejected this intention.
Nuno Banza, president of ICNF, explained to our newspaper that “the conditional favorable environmental impact statement is included in a process in which the possibility of presenting a project for that territory was considered. This project also had to be appreciated. And what happened to this process is that, based on the environmental compliance report with the execution project, the project that was presented did not meet the conditions to be approved. Therefore, there is no licensing».
The official also explained that, for some years now, “the possibility was considered that, under certain conditions, ie, guaranteeing the compatibility between the natural values present and the promoter's intention, to consider a project that would reconcile these interests. But the prosecutor was unable to do so. And therefore it had an unfavorable opinion».
In other words, added Nuno Banza, "although having a conditional favorable environmental impact statement, if the promoter presents a project that does not make it possible to reconcile the values involved and their intentions, the administration will always tell them no and then not no vested right results'.
For her part, Rosa Palma, mayor of Silves, also present at the presentation of the proposal, which took place at the Parochial Hall of Pêra, and later during the visit, with the minister, to Lagoa dos Salgados, reaffirmed in statements to the Sul Informação, their joy at the future creation of the nature reserve.
Because, he recalled, it was also the former municipal executive, chaired by the PSD, who opened the doors to the mega venture on the shore of the lake, and could forever call into question the natural values that exist there.
«For my part, even when I was a non-permanent councilor and later as president of the Chamber [elected by the CDU], but without a majority in the executive, we always did everything so that there was an assessment in the sense of being able to consider a development that would not hurt the environmental values of the area'.
Now, with the proposal to create the nature reserve, which "makes perfect sense", "the situation is quite different and the central administration will have to see what response it can give to the promoters" of the tourist development, added the mayor.
For Rosa Palma, «if what conditioned this licensing were the environmental values, with the creation of the nature reserve, we are giving room so that these values can override the promoter's intentions. Environmental values will speak louder and that's what we expect».
The ICNF president, expressing his "great pride" that the creation of the new protected area is finally about to happen, stressed that "the intentions to occupy or change the use of the territory that have come to light are very old and have come over time to have the appropriate response from the administration», always negative.
Because, he reinforced, "the fact that there are priority habitats and priority species here, with local endemisms, has meant that, over the years, even without the existence of the nature reserve, the administration has been giving negative opinions, subsequently, to the intention to change that use of the territory'.
Therefore, he concluded, “it is not because of the fact that there is now a natural reserve that the administration is going to say “no” to something that previously said “yes”. We've already said “no” for a long time and we've said it with reason,” asserted Nuno Banza.
Or, in the words of Minister Matos Fernandes, "the classification is about to come and, once completed, there will certainly be no tourist bed here."
In fact, the ICNF president prefers to look to the future, guaranteeing that "the nature reserve will not prevent anything, but precisely the opposite: to promote conservation actions that protect values that go far beyond the intentions to occupy certain territories."
"In a territory where there are such strong environmental values, regardless of whether it is a protected area or not, no citizen would understand that the administration would allow its destruction," argued Nuno Banza. «We are absolutely certain that promoters, citizens, organizations, at a time when everyone is discussing the importance of biodiversity at a global level, will certainly not be stuck with old-fashioned concepts, which nowadays everyone recognizes that they are not make sense».
The public discussion of the proposal for the creation of the Lagoa dos Salgados Nature Reserve begins this Thursday, December 9th. The participation of interested parties will take place through the Participa.pt portal (and by other normal means), until the 21st of January next. It is on this same platform that the documents that shape the proposal for the creation of the new protected area are available.
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação
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