Milvoz is alarmed by the publication in the Diário da República of public interest declarations for 3 solar projects in the Ega area (Condeixa-a-Nova), which would in part destroy native forest habitats composed of cork oaks and other indigenous species.
In an energy transition marketed as 'green', we continue to witness the complete disregard for biodiversity conservation criteria and native habitats. This is just one more example, in a region that is not lacking in environmentally degraded areas — notably extensive eucalyptus monoculture zones — where there is no implication of felling protected trees or habitats of significant biodiversity value. Milvoz therefore cannot understand the public administration's insistence on authorising projects harmful to the natural landscape when these processes could be carried out with far lower impact on environmentally degraded areas that are geographically nearby, and whose implementation could even be integrated as a first step in their ecological recovery.
Furthermore, the environmental compensation measures proposed for the project are negligible and ill-conceived, as they are planned for a distant area — Portalegre — in an entirely different geographic and ecological context, which in no way compensates for the felling of a mature woodland. Plantations as a form of compensation fall far short of any fair mechanism of genuine environmental offset. Not only can young trees not fulfil the ecological functions of decades-old specimens, but the mortality rate in plantations is extremely high because seedling selection and provenance, correct planting and necessary follow-up care are frequently neglected. We therefore predict that this will in all likelihood be yet another completely futile plantation, where few or no viable cork oaks remain, serving only to legitimise yet another project that degrades the natural landscape.
In this context, the already so degraded Coimbra region continues down the path of environmental destruction… Until when? More must be done for the heritage that belongs to everyone and that sustains our existence. Green energy at the cost of ecosystem destruction? NO!
