With promoters of the luxury Praia Grande Eco-Resort mysteriously going underground – and refusing to answer any press questions – environmental association Almargem has taken the initiative.
It is calling on nature lovers and conservationists to email a list of authorities in the hope that “maybe, all together, we can change the terrible plans that exist for this marvellous spot”.
A bit like campaigning website AVAAZ, which takes on atrocities and issues of all kinds and tries through petitions to force change, Almargem has supplied names, addresses, even text for people to make their voices heard.
The mails are to be sent to Silves municipal assembly, the CCDR and ICNF (both authorities in charge of environmental concerns), the environment ministry, prime minister António Costa, parliamentary leader Ferro Rodrigues and President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The text – for anyone who has followed this issue over the years – is simple and straightforward: yet another project for ‘mass tourism’ has been planned for what is effectively “the last unoccupied haven” for flora and fauna along the coast – an area that Almargem dubs “unique”, alongside a birding wetland visited by thousands of enthusiasts from around the world.
Almargem is pushing for a “sustainable project”, not “another large urbano-touristic development (fallaciously designated as the Praia Grande Eco-Resort) which includes a golf course encircled by hotels and apartment blocks, totalling around 4000 beds”.
After what appeared to be a grandiose announcement that Millennium BCP was selling the development, via the good auspices of CBRE – a world leader in the real estate sector – (click here), regional press interest has been ‘shut down’ with requests for interviews – initially accepted – later all denied.
Almargem’s call can be found on its Facebook page: Almargem – Associação de Defesa do Património Cultural e Ambiental do Algarve, and is being widely shared.
