The environmental association Quercus lamented today what it regards as “lack of transparency” from the Government regarding the “closed-door” restructuring of the APA and ICNF organizations, and reinforced a request for a meeting with the Minister of the Environment.
The Government announced a restructuring of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) and the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF), which, according to the Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, is practically completed.
The minister has said that the objective is a “deep simplification of licensing processes,” with a significant reduction in steps, timelines and administrative requirements, with greater emphasis on post-licensing enforcement.
With the restructuring of the APA, the aim is to create directorates for the main river basins, while at the ICNF decisions on environmental impact studies are to be taken at the central level, with regional delegations losing that power.
In a statement, Quercus says that four months ago it had requested a meeting with the minister on this subject, but did not receive a response, and reiterates the request to Maria da Graça Carvalho to meet with environmental organizations and share the restructuring plan for the two “important environmental management bodies” of the country.
In the document, the association says it is apprehensive, considers that environmental associations should have been consulted about the restructuring, given the bodies involved, and questions the meaning of “a deep simplification of licensing processes”.
“At a time when our territory and its scarce natural resources are constantly threatened, compromising their ecological balance in favor of megaprojects and infrastructures with significant environmental impacts, it is concerning to think that the APA and ICNF may adopt more lenient and/or rushed licensing procedures,” says Quercus in the statement.
And it adds that betting on post hoc enforcement seems to rest on “a remediation policy,” when too often wrongdoers go unscathed.
Regarding the centralization of powers, Quercus believes it to be a substitution of decisions that should be technical and regionally supported with merely political decisions.
