Portugal’s National Association for Nature Conservation, Quercus, has hit out at the "continuous environmental abuses and illegality” in the Ria Formosa National Park, referring to "the events in September on Culatra with the illegal construction of a helipad."
Quercus joins the League for the Protection of Nature in the Algarve which also has bitterly complained about the illegally built helipad, built by the islanders with the collusion and de facto approval of the local authority.
Quercus stresses that "the islands of the Ria Formosa Natural Park are part of the public maritime domain, the inalienable property of the Portuguese State. The construction of the heliport could only have been carried out with the permission of the Portuguese Environment Agency and, as there was no such permission, this work was carried out unlawfully."
Quercus points out the irresponsible behaviour of some local politicians who took advantage of the situation in order to canvas for local votes, even though they were aware that the construction of the structure was illagal. One of the onlookers was Rogerio Bacalhau, who now as the mayor of Faro, is trying to sort out the mess that he condoned.
According to Quercus the island is a legal shambles as all the buildings on Culatra have been built without permission, constructed over the years under the noses of the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forestry, the Portuguese Environment Agency, the Portuguese Navy, and Faro Câmara.
Quercus takes a hard line, backed up by various coastal action plans that have been slow to get off the ground, and insists on "firm action by the police to start the programme of taking the islands back to their natural state, and the removal of all the buildings and relocating and compensating the islanders, because the continuation of the current situation will end up more expensive for the taxpayer in medium term."
Meanwhile the former mayor of Faro, Macario Correia, who proved adept at ignoring the Culatra problem during his period in office, today admitted that council technicians did give advice to the islanders on how best to construct the heliport, despite its illegality. Correia gave his tacit approval for the construction by doing nothing himself, while supplying technical help.
Correia explained in a radio interview today that he did it because he thought he “had to help people.”
"If we stuck to the letter of the law, the primary school should not exist because it is an unlicensed construction, therefore children should not go to school. There would be no day care for the elderly because that building was not authorised. There should be no helipad and people should not be helped out when there is an emergency, because it is illegal. This helipad is a necessity, it was assessed by the National Institute of Civil Aviation and has the right conditions to operate," said Correia, adding that, "Those people are entitled to have the living conditions of any other citizen because they were born there, they are not there as illegals or pirates attacking the state. The question of the helipad must be seen in this context."
