Millennium BPC’s Salgados Praia Grande eco-Resort “cannot legitimately advance”

Almargem, the Algarve based environmental protection organisation, has applied to the Environmental Fund for study into several important wetlands in the region which, for various reasons, have never properly been classified.

Trafal and Foz do Almargem were included in the application, as the nearby Quinta do Oceâno development has been given the green light despite its impact on the natural area.

Various proposals have been presented to Loulé Council to classify these wetlands as a locally protected area but the Council decided to delay any such move, preferring tourist accommodation to wetland areas.

The Sapais de Pêra and Lagoa dos Salgados also were included in the application, as the threat of the wholesale destruction of this area remains in the hands of Millennium-BCP which now owns the controversial Praia Grande eco-Resort project which is has been trying to sell.

Salgados, the focus of a 34,000 signature environmental petition to preserve the area, (HERE) was included in as January 2018 resolution to the Assembly of the Republic by the Algarve’s MPs ‘to preserve wetlands in the Algarve.’

Almargem says of the Praia Grande eco-Resort that there remain “some significant gaps in scientific and socio-economic knowledge, which is a credible argument that the planned urbanisation for this area cannot legitimately advance”

Also included in Almargem’s application to the Environmental Fund is the Alagoas Brancas wetland in Lagoa where the council are happy for a supermarket to be built.

Over a year ago, Almargem demanded that studies were commissioned on the conservation importance of this site, which the Portuguese Environmental Association and the Nature and Forestry Institute have never completed.

One of the wetlands initially proposed was Paúl de Lagos but this has been removed from the application as Lagos Council has approved its protection.