A highly suspicious and partial report, issued in 2017 by the Institute for the Conservation of Forestry and Nature, has been discreditied by the PAN political party which is demanding that the Lagoa wetlands be classified as a protected zone.
The party also has demanded that the ICNF carries out a new study that takes the matter seriously and stops referring to the freshwaterr wetland as of no interest and not worth protecting.
PAN’s lone and determined MP already has questioned the Ministry of the Environment about the threats to the area, "of proven ecosystem relevance due to the diversity and rarity of its flora and fauna" and refers to the 2017 document as "incorrect” - to the delight of 'Save Alagoas Brancas' campaigners.
Meanwhile, Lagoa Council continues its open support of the Continente supermartket chain which has planning permission to destroy the site that gave the city its name – a fact lost on the mayor and his acolytes whose rudeness and arrogance towards campaigners have become legendary.
PAN demands, rather naively, that the municipality use "the means at its disposal to create a Local Protection Perimeter and a Special Protection Zone that guarantees the preservation and sustainability of Alagoas Brancas for the long term." This is not likely to haoppen, unless at knifepoint, as the Council is determined to have yet another supermarket in the city and openly supports the project while trashing campaigners and their legitimate efforts.
For the People, Animals, Nature party, "the environmental value of this area has been described and proven in a recent Almargem study, a document that can and should serve as a justification for classifying the area," states PAN.
The 2017 ICNF report, which raised questions of political and commercial intereference in this government agency, stated that, "basically the Alagoas Brancas wetlands had no natural value – a position that, "lacked validity for part of the scientific community,' states PAN.
In addition to the official classification of the wetland as a protected area, PAN asks that the areas be included as a Ramsar, globally recognised and protected wetland based on the agreement signed by Portugal in 1980.
The party calls for European guidelines for the protection of migratory birds to be followed and that, “work is being done to include Alagoas Brancas as part of the Important Bird Areas network, one of the largest global networks for bird protection and conservation of their habitats.”
