According to a statement from the party, the PAN requires “the action [of the Public Ministry] in the defense of diffuse interests, to stop an environmental attack in Alagoas Brancas”, in the municipality of Lagoa, district of Faro.

“At stake is the preservation of one of the last freshwater wetlands in the Algarve, the Alagoas Brancas area, which is home to vast wildlife, including species protected at a national and European level”.

“Buried alive”

The PAN party reports of the destruction of sugarcane fields, “despite the presence of more than 500 individuals of the Ibis species […] and several individuals of the Mediterranean tortoise ('Mauremys leprosa') species buried alive in Alagoas Brancas. This is a species listed as Vulnerable on the European Red List and the IUCN Red List. In addition, the species is listed in Annexes II and IV of the Habitats Directive which designates the species as an endangered species and the habitat as a Special Area of ​​Conservation.”

“It is unacceptable that the municipality is colluding with this environmental crime and against biodiversity, having allowed the start of the work and, consequently, the destruction of one of the last wetlands in the region, of high ecological value and which are still burying alive endangered species, such as the Mediterranean Tortoise,” said PAN spokesperson Inês de Sousa Real, quoted in the document.

Rights for “future generations”

For the PAN leader and sole deputy of the party, “environmental defense cannot just be a flag that is waved during electoral times, but that is easily discarded when it comes to effectively protecting the environment, animals, the quality of life of people and the rights of future generations”.

Sousa Real recalled that “in recent years civil society and non-governmental environmental organisations have struggled to ensure the preservation of this unique ecosystem”.

“The PAN party, through its political action, has also claimed the same. In 2019, PAN demanded the classification of Alagoas Brancas as a protected area and that the ICNF carry out a new study to replace an opinion given in 2017, which environmentally devalued Alagoas Brancas” and, in 2020, “condemned the decision of the Municipality of Lagoa for having approved the construction in Alagoas Brancas because such construction would destroy the existing habitat and alienate the species existing there”.

The party recalled that the Assembly of the Republic recommended to the Government the protection of Alagoas Brancas.

“Destruction”

“Now, in 2022, machines are destroying this natural sanctuary where more than 140 species of birds, hundreds of species of insects, more than 70 species of plants, rare and threatened amphibians live, precisely because they depend on these systems that are constantly changing and being destroyed”.

The development, consisting of 11 lots, is contested by environmentalists because, they claim, the construction “will destroy that wetland and jeopardise the safety” of the city in a flood situation.

According to Lagoa council, the initial project was approved in 2009 and went through all the licensing phases provided for by law to allow the granting of the permit and the subdivision.

The Almargem Association, A Rocha Portugal, GEOTA, FAPAS, the League for the Protection of Nature (LPN), the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds (SPEA) and ZERO - Sustainable Terrestrial System Association ensure that “they do not conform nor will they stand still in the face of this serious and unnecessary environmental aggression”.