Protected area programs in preparation of preliminary proposals months before the deadline

The transfer of 20 of the 25 Protected Area Management Plans to Special Programs, underway since 2023, is still in the preliminary proposal preparation phase, months before the deadline set in the competition.

“The processes related to the renewal of the 20 Protected Area Management Plans (POAP) to Special Programs (PEAP) that were awarded to two external companies are underway and are in Phase II, which corresponds to the preparation of the preliminary proposal for the Special Program”, said the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF), in response to Lusa.

The transition from 20 POAP to PEAP was awarded in October 2023 to two companies that, after signing their respective contracts, began identifying the current situation.

At the time, the national authority in this matter indicated that, according to the tender launched in July of that year, the preparation of the services and respective products will be carried out in five phases, with an execution period of 24 months.

Questioned last week by Lusa, the ICNF clarified that “in June, meetings were held by the Consultative Committees of the Special Programs of the Berlengas Nature Reserve, the São Jacinto Dunes Nature Reserve, the Paul de Arzila Nature Reserve, the Tejo Nature Reserve and the Protected Landscape of Serra do Açor, to assess this phase of work”.

These five cases, he added, “initiated Phase III of the procedure.”

According to the institute, it is expected that “during the months of September and October, meetings of the Consultative Committees of the Special Programs of the Serra da Malcata Nature Reserve, Paul do Boquilobo Nature Reserve, Alvão Natural Park, Vale do Guadiana Natural Park, Serra de São Mamede Natural Park will take place”.

The remaining processes will be submitted for consideration by the respective Advisory Committees in 2025.

Regarding the Special Program for the Serra da Estrela Natural Park – excluded from the competition launched in July 2023 due to the 2022 fires – the organization added that it is “being developed by an external entity”, and is “in Phase I, corresponding to the establishment of the reference situation.”

In this case, the ICNF stressed, the issue at stake is the preparation of the special program and not its renewal.

The exception arises from the rural fire that occurred in August 2022 in the Serra da Estrela Natural Park and which “had significant impacts on nature conservation and biodiversity”, altering the territorial reality on which the defined planning model was based.

In addition to the Special Program for the Serra da Estrela Natural Park, which was excluded from the competition because it was at an advanced stage of development, the Special Programs for the Peneda-Gerês National Park, the Serras de Aire e Candeeiros Natural Park, the Tejo Internacional Natural Park and the North Coast Natural Park were also excluded, the development of which is the responsibility of the ICNF.

Of these, only the Special Program for the Serras de Aire e Candeeiros Natural Park is completed, having been approved and published in the Official Gazette in October 2023.

The remaining three programs, which, in 2023, were, according to the ICNF, in an “advanced state of preparation”, remain uncompleted and only one awaits approval and publication.

The POAPs establish the safeguarding and conservation policy intended to be implemented in the mainland's National Network of Protected Areas, which includes 51 areas, including one national park, 13 natural parks, nine nature reserves, two protected landscapes, and seven natural monuments. Twenty-five have POAPs in effect.