Environmental group, ZERO and Transparency & Integrity, the Portuguese representative for Transparency International, have condemned the proposed sale of Herdade da Comporta, saying that the current spatial planning regulations are not at all compatible with speculative real estate projects that do not comply with European legislation.
The two organisations say that the possibility should be considered of using the area for projects that favour a more sustainable use for the land, a use that is in tune with the preservation of the nature, scenic and cultural legacy of the Comporta area.
The estate once was controlled by the Espírito Santo family but after their empire turned to dust in 2014, Herdade da Comporta found itself caught up in the insolvency of Rioforte Investments under the control of administrators in Luxembourg. The other shareholder is Novo Banco whose joins Rioforte in controlling Gesfimo, the company that is trying, not very hard, to sell of the development.
The Comporta area, formerly owned by the family, has approved development permission but struggles to be sold off due to the influence of Caetano and Carloto Beirão da Veiga, clan family members, who can’t seem to bear to let the place go unless there is sufficient 'inducement.'
Zero and Transparency & Integrity list five reasons why the estate, occupying an enviable area of farmland and coastline below Tróia in the north-western Alentejo, should not be sold off to a developer who will maximise the number of beds and tourist facilities in order to make the required profit.
Five reasons not to proceed with the sale of Comporta:
1. Herdade da Comporta covers an area of 12,500 ha, of which 744 ha are part of two tourist development areas delimited in the Regional Plan for the Territory of the Alentejo Coast, approved in August 1993.
The José Sócrates' government gave permission for more construction area at Herdade da Comporta, basing its decision on an alleged "public interest" to turn the area into a tourist zone because it was not being used for much else.
For ZERO and Transparency and Integrity, it is clear that there are alternatives to high-density development, namely a lower rate of construction or building nothing at all.
Moreover, there is no justification for claiming 'public interest' in an area that is privately owned and of enormous natural and scenic value.
2. The area was classified as National Ecological Reserve and the environmentalists say this categorisation should be restored.
In December 2016, ZERO reported that the Alcácer do Sal and Grândola Councils had proposed to reduce their protected the National Ecological Reserve areas by 68% and 76% respectively. Shockingly, this was granted and the Alentejo Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDRA), with the approval of the Portuguese Environmental Agency, redrew the ecological areas clearly to the financial benefit of private interests and in clear violation of the strategic guidelines with which the Government is meant to be upholding.
With this chicanery, planning was granted for areas that had been highly protected ecological zones, something the Ministry of the Environment, under Minister João Pedro Matos Fernandes, has failed to correct.
It seems that REN areas are protected until a cheque book is produced.
3. A Management Plan for the Comporta site, which is mandatory under European legislation, does not exist
The Tourist Development Areas at Herdade da Comporta are inside the boundary of the Comporta-Galé site which in 1997 was included in the first list of ‘Natura 2000’ ecological sites, approved by the Council of Ministers in August of that year.
The area of dunes and vegetation, from the sea to the interior, has important flora and is a habitat that needs to be protected under international protocols.
4. The failure of the controlling property businesses, that has resulted in Herdade da Comporta being used like a pawn, left Caixa Geral de Depósitos with an unpaid loan of over €100 million. The publicly owned bank is not interested in the asset and just wants as much money back as possible.
Caixa Geral de Depósitos, like many banks, attempts to promote itself as a bank of exceptional environmental sensitivity and witters on about ‘sustainable development’ while in fact, caring not a jot about the future of the Comporta area.
ZERO and Transparency & Integrity say that the State should intervene and demand that the bank takes control of the whole area to guarantee the public interest.
It is fundamental to have a reassessment of the wrong choices made in recent years in terms of development along the Alentejo coast, in particular due to the creation of Tourist Development Areas that do not safeguard the protected natural heritage.
5. There are several ways to safeguard the natural and landscape values that are unique to the area.
ZERO and Transparency & Integrity say that the selling criteria should consider the possibility of using the area for projects that favour a more sustainable occupation of the territory that boosts local resources and should not be aligned with tourism and real estate projects with high occupancy rates and consequent high impacts on the Alentejo coast between Tróia and Sines, thus repeating errors in many other coastal areas that that the whole country regrets.
The reasons for scrapping the REN classification to allow development at Comporta were deeply political and should not have been sufficient to facilitate yet another huge tourist development on of Portugal's finest natural areas. ,