PROBAAL related press

Battle begins to save Barrocal landscape from transformation into massive solar park

Date: 25/05/2023

Description of the event

Journal do Algarve

Journalist João Prudêncio recently visited the site at Cerro do Leiria and has written a very thorough piece regarding the situation here. The article contains contributions from PROBAAL members, Claudia Sil of the Sustainable Water Platform (PAS) and biologist João Pinto from the University of the Algarve, Faro.

The President of Santa Catarina da Fonte do Bispo, Carlos Sousa, also spoke with the paper, saying ”We all recognise that energy is an asset for our country, but the Junta de Freguesia thinks that there were alternatives that would not harm the parish in the barrocal. We have areas further inland that could be used for this purpose”. As to the hypothetical lack of land available for this project, the mayor added: “Here in the Barrocal, the land wasn’t available either. They were looking for land and had to buy and rent. The Junta de Freguesia is calmly awaiting the position of the public consultation, and what the people will say. It’s not about getting up there and putting up the panels”, he concluded.

Date: 27/01/2022

Subscribe online for the full article: https://www.facebook.com/jornaldoalgarve/posts/7748968228462170

Solar Farm at What Cost?
by Nina Dar

A brand new season of The Change Troubleshooter Podcast.
In Season 3 – If Not You, Who? This season features people who are getting out there trying to make a difference, often against the odds.
It’s a season of stories about ordinary, everyday people with the guts and determination to take on is big issues

Date: December 2021

trailer

Play Podcast

Open Letter to Iberdrola in
El Correo, Bilbao

Bilbao is where the headquarters of Iberdrola are, which is why we wrote our first open letter to this newspaper. It read as follows:

”Renewable energies are not worth our biodiversity, soil or water;
The environmental association PROBAAL opposes the 83MW Estoi-Tavira solar project proposed by Iberdrola S.A. in Cerro do Leiria, Algarve, Portugal. Its implementation would deforest 2kms; destroy habitats, biodiversity and trees, in an area of National Ecological Reserve. Designated as an area of maximum infiltration of the Peral/Moncarapacho aquifer, a strategic area of protection and recharge and an area of high hydrological vulnerability, its deforestation would accentuate the already high levels of soil erosion and hinder the recharge of the aquifer.”

”We say to Iberdrola that any photovoltaic project on Cerro do Leiria will be illegal, in violation of the Algarve Spatial Planning Law (PROT) and the Ecological Reserves Law. It is also sad to find cases where intimidation tactics have been used by officials to obtain land in Cerro do Leiria, even before the Environment Agency has reviewed a case. PROBAAL will protect this land by all legal means because destroying the planet to save it is not a madness we can tolerate.”

Date: 07/10/2022

25/06/2021

Sul Informação