Sunday’s demonstration to halt the building of a Continente supermarket, on the Lagoas Brancas wildlife wetland in Lagoa, was a noisy, well-mannered affair with a determined focus.
Faced with continued intransigence from the local mayor and zero response to enquiries to Sonae, Continente’s owner, the protestors fear the worst and demand to be heard before the remainder of the wildlife site is covered over with landfill and leveled in preparation for industrial units and yet another supermarket in a city that has more than its fair share.
The demonstration started off with around 40 men, women and children and over the course of the wet morning an estimated 100 turned up to join in the chanting an banner waving.
Spotted among the crowd was Frank McClintock, the seasoned campaigner and one man powerhouse behind the Save Salgados campaign that has forced the suspension of developer Finalgarve’s determination to turn a 350 hectare wildlife area between Armação de Pêra and Galé into another swish hotel, golf course and tourist apartment zone covering much of the only remaining seafront countryside area in the central Algarve.
João Vasconcelos, the Algarve Left Bloc MP joined the demonstrators in support of his party’s opposition to the industrial zone expansion plan. Indeed, it has been only the Left Bloc at council level that has voiced any opposition in the nearby town hall.
James Watson, Carl Hawker, Anabela Blofeld, Almargem’s João Santos and other environmentalists protested at the council’s determined lack of communication and at the expansion of an area that will see the council itself benefit as three lots will be ceded to the municipality when the project is complete, a conflict of interests that has not gone unnoticed at local or national level.
At midday, a motion was read out and approved by the protestors who demand an immediate halt to the groundworks as the area is part of a natural reserve and should be developed as such to the benefit of wildlife and locals.
The petition will be sent to the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the duplicitous Minister of the Environment, parliamentary groups and the local council.
The Portuguese Environment Agency paid a visit last week and the council then shut down the contractors due to their having a licence only to clear the vegetation, not cover the area with rubble to the depth of over a metre.
This was temporary and the next move by the workmen has been to erect a metal screen around the site in an attempt to stop people seeing what they are up to.
Whether the site is going to be a Continente supermarket, or not, is a question that still hangs in the air but with the council and Sonae refusing to answer this question, the rumour is that a supermarket indeed will be built on this wetland bird sanctuary.
The civil engineering contractor’s owner is the brother of the president of Sonae, Angelo Paupério, so it does look odds-on that the protestors are up against a formidable foe.
However, supermarkets rely on customers and the threat of a local boycott may at least get the Sonae suits sat around the table with those more concerned with the environment than with greed and profit.
As the protestors chanted, "Queremos mais o ambiente, nao queremos Continente."
The public petition 'Stop the destruction of Lagoa wetlands' is at: http://peticaopublica.com/pview.aspx?pi=PT84449
There is a facebook group, named: 'Salvar Lagoas Lagoa - Save Lagoa's Lagoa'
