The Liga para a Proteção da Natureza (LPN) yesterday asked the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) to be “present, active, proactive and rigorous,” highlighting the agency’s capacity to respond during the Volta’s passage through Gerês.
“Beyond what, for the LPN, were serious procedural irregularities and controversial deliberations, what stood out on the August 13 stage, before all spectators, was the capacity the ICNF demonstrated when it has people, resources, on-the-ground presence and operational capacity. It was remarkable the level of mobilization, monitoring and response of its professionals. This is what we need from the ICNF,” says the LPN, in a statement.
The LPN recalls that, like other environmental protection organizations, it has “for years advocated for this strengthening of the human, technical and logistical resources of the national authority for nature conservation, so that it can be present on the ground, monitor, prevent and effectively manage the natural heritage.”
The 7th stage of the 87th edition of the Volta a Portugal cycling race, which took place on August 13 and crossed the Peneda-Gerês National Park (PNPG), generated concern and criticism from environmental associations, which contested the passage of the cyclists, especially through Mata da Albergaria, in the municipality of Terras de Bouro, Braga district.
The ICNF authorized the Volta’s passage through the site, but conditioned “to strong biodiversity protection measures,” such as a public prohibition.
“Protecting places like Mata da Albergaria requires a strong ICNF, like the one we saw on the ground on August 13, but also an ICNF capable of taking timely and firm decisions that best defend the natural values it is charged with protecting,” appeals the environmental association.
The LPN understands that, like other environmental organizations, the dismantling of the Forestry Services in 1996 and the extinction of the National Forest Guard Corps in 2006, “whose functions were never fully assumed by subsequent entities, were errors of forestry and conservation policy whose consequences are evident in Portugal’s rural spaces.”
“If these resources had continued to operate in the day-to-day management of that protected area, the Peneda-Gerês National Park would have been able to reconcile conservation with forest management and nature tourism much more effectively,” stresses the association.
The LPN acknowledges that, despite this, “the environmental conditions imposed by the ICNF for the Volta a Portugal’s passage through Mata da Albergaria were scrupulously complied with by the organization, thanks to the on-site presence of the institute’s technical staff.”
“This is the ICNF we want: present, active, proactive, and rigorous,” pleads the LPN, which, however, reiterates that “the good outcome of the operation does not, nonetheless, alter the fundamental issue.”
“The fact that the event was supervised after being approved in extremis does not mean it should have happened in that place. The main risk may lie less in the concrete impact of the race’s passage and more in the precedent that such a decision could create, and that precedent also came from the ICNF itself,” warns the Liga para a Proteção da Natureza.
The 7th stage crossed the heart of the Peneda-Gerês National Park, the Mata da Albergaria, where there are about 15 square kilometres of native Portuguese oak forest, exceptionally well preserved in all its floristic and faunistic components.
