The proTEJO movement today demanded binding targets, more funding and coherence between restoration policies and the plans for new infrastructures in the Tagus basin, within the scope of the National Plan for Nature Restoration (PNRN), whose importance it defended.
“Understanding the problem is not enough,” said today the Movement for the Tagus — proTEJO, which, in a statement, considers it necessary “to guarantee funding commensurate, binding targets, and coherence between what the State commits to restore and what it authorizes to build.”
The position was presented within the scope of the PNRN public consultation, which ends today, and focuses mainly on the technical report relating to Article 9 of the European regulation, dedicated to the natural connectivity of rivers and floodplains.
In the document, proTEJO, headquartered in Vila Nova da Barquinha, in the Santarém district, welcomes the national inventory of artificial barriers to river connectivity, which identified 15,584 structures, but considers the anticipated response “insufficient,” namely the intervention estimated at 386 kilometres by 2030.
For the movement, that extent must stop being an indicative estimate and give way to binding national targets for 2030, 2040 and 2050, broken down by hydrographic region and proportional to the obsolete barriers identified.
The funding foreseen for Article 9 is another critique, with proTEJO contesting the 77.6 million euros (ME) planned for 2024-2032, which, according to the movement, represents 2.3% of the overall PNRN allocation and one of the smallest shares among the different articles.
“It is the largest inventory of barriers in the entire PNRN and one of the lowest funding levels,” the movement argues, advocating the strengthening of funds to enable an intervention at the scale of the problem identified.
Among the recommendations presented are the strengthening of lateral and vertical connectivity of rivers and the creation of a simplified licensing regime for removing obsolete barriers.
ProTEJO considers that current licensing and public procurement processes, which can last 18 to 24 months, are one of the main obstacles to implementing restoration interventions.
The movement highlights the removal of the Sourinho dam on the Alviela River, integrated in the PRO~RIOS 2030 program, as an example of intervention to be replicated for the recovery of river connectivity and migratory species passage.
The main criticism of proTEJO, however, lies in the coexistence between the restoration objectives for river connectivity foreseen in the PNRN and the projects for new hydraulic infrastructures in the Tagus basin.
According to the movement, the strategies “Water that Unites” and “Tagus Project” foresee investments exceeding €5,000 million in new infrastructures, including the Alvito dam on the Ocreza River, a reservoir associated with the Médio Tejo Multi-Purpose Enterprise, and new dams and reservoirs between Abrantes and Lisbon.
The proTEJO estimates about €360 million for the Alvito dam, €1,350 million for the Médio Tejo project and €4,500 million for the projects it identifies for the last 127 kilometres of the free Tagus between Abrantes and Lisbon.
“It is not public policy coherence to present to the European Commission a plan to remove barriers and, in the same basin, advance with projects that build new barriers,” states the movement.
ProTEJO warns that fragmentation of that stretch of the Tagus would jeopardize the recovery of migratory species such as the shad and the sea lamprey and could affect designated areas, including the Tagus Estuary, Paul do Boquilobo and zones of the Natura 2000 Network and the Ramsar Convention.
Therefore, the movement demands that the final version of the PNRN include a formal declaration of coherence of public policies and that any new barrier in the Tagus basin be subject to strategic environmental assessment, with analysis of alternatives such as agricultural water efficiency and the reuse of treated wastewater.
The organization also advocates for a prior opinion from the European Commission before approving new large-scale barriers in the watershed.
The public consultation of the PNRN has run since July 9 and ends today.
Coordinated by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF), the PNRN provides a national response to the European Union regulation that sets European targets for nature restoration.
