Catarina Martins has visited the remains of Roman sites in Beja, bulldozed by workers contracted by the Portuguese offshoot of Spanish company De Prado, SA. The destruction made way for thousands of almond trees, with Martins admitting that, “all this was done without reference to the rules.”
The head Bloquista said, with glorious hindsight, that "the future must be protected," and during her visit she aimed at denouncing environmental crimes including the wrecking of a Roman bridge and almost 20 archaeological sites that are clearly marked on Beja Council’s municipal land use plan. The plan now needs to be altered and the sites removed, for accuracy.
De Prado, SA, which, between April and August this year managed to destroy 2,000 years of history so that its workers could plant a three thousand hectare monocultute of almond trees on land to the north of the regional capital.
The leader of the Left Bloc said that "everything here in this almond farm was done without looking at the rules, the bulldozers came in and destroyed everything," adding that "there must be rules on land use and planning," spotting also that there is "an uncontrolled consumption of water in a year of drought."
Catarina Martins pointed out that intensive monocultures, "do not create jobs, do not leave added value and have caused very serious environmental damage."
Present at the Left Bloc walkabout was the archaeologist Cláudio Torres, who also is no fan of monocultures, "This land is one of the richest in the country, and after four of five years the land is dead with this kind of crops. We import grain while allowing this type of intensive crop and nobody is interested.”
The Public Prosecutor's Office is interested in the destruction of Portugal's Roman heritage and is investigating the destruction of the archaeological sites that were dug up and their stones piled up during the land clearance operations.
The case follows a criminal complaint filed on August 31st 2017 by the Regional Directorate of Culture of the Alentejo against the company De Prado Portugal.
The lack of ability or initial interest from Portugal's many and varied environmental and governmental bodies, shows the damage that can be done by a man on a digger who carried on, as no-one told him to stop despite this environmental crime being committed in broad daylight.
See also: 'Spanish company trashed Roman sites in Beja'
