A petition with roughly 6,000 signatures is calling for action to save the Southwest Alentejo and Costa Vicentina Natural Park (PNSACV) from the uncontrolled advance of intensive agriculture is set to be discussed today in the Assembly of the Republic.
The petition, which demands the repeal of a Council of Ministers’ decision that established a special area, called the “Irrigation Perimeter of Mira” (PRM), is promoted by the movement “Juntos Pelo Sudoeste”, which defends “a serious debate about the situation” that is taking place in the Southwest Alentejo and Costa Vicentina Natural Park. The movement, consisting mainly of citizens of Odemira and Aljezur announced that the public petition, called "The Natural Park of Southwest Alentejo and Costa Vicentina can no longer handle intensive agriculture!", launched back in January this year, and is to be debated this week.
"The petition will be delivered on Monday, probably in the afternoon, and we have already requested an audience with the President of the Assembly of the Republic in order to be able to hand over the document," Fátima Teixeira, spokeswoman for the movement, explained today to the Lusa news agency.
In recent weeks, the movement “met with some parliamentary groups, who are already aware of the situation and aware of the problem that is happening in the PRM, which is also part of the Natural Park, so we hope this will be discussed properly”, added the spokeswoman.
The document “aims at a serious debate on the situation of the Natural Park, in light of the uncontrolled and disproportionate advance of the agribusiness, namely the crops covered by kilometers of plastic, in an agricultural model under an intensive regime that has jeopardized the environmental integrity of the territory”, explains the movement in a statement. In the opinion of the petition's promoters, which brings together residents in the parishes “most affected by intensive agriculture”, such as Vila Nova de Milfontes, Zambujeira do Mar, São Teotónio and Longueira / Almograve (Odemira), the decision made by the Council of Ministers last year on October 24th has "allowed the area covered by plastic to triple what already exists" in this protected area. Thus, nothing was done to “solve the serious problems and infractions identified in official reports, or to halt the rampant agricultural expansion until all the interests of the Southwest region were taken care of”.
The government decision generated “revolt by authorizing the placement of containers inside agricultural holdings in the heart of the Natural Park to accommodate immigrant workers up to a value that can reach 36 thousand people, in a region with a current registered population of 26 thousand inhabitants, whose public services are increasingly weak ”, they point out.
The Juntos Pelo Sudoeste movement also accuses the State of “a clear lack of zeal” in the “preservation of a valuable ecologically sensitive heritage” and of the “assumed lack of monitoring and inspection that should be done by the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF) with regard to the environmental impact on the entire area”.
“It is necessary to strictly monitor this territory because nobody has regulated anything for some years. We ask the Government to also reinforce the inspection to know what is being implemented on the ground, such as the fertilisers and agricultural practices that are being used”, concluded Ms. Teixeira.
