Conservation

Portugal fined for environmental failings

Portugal has been fined 10 million euro’s by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for failing to comply with the Habitats Directive (adopted in 1992), that aims to protect over a thousand species, including mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and plants. It also has been ordered to pay a compulsory fine of 41,250 euro’s a day until it complies with a previous court order from 2019.

The daily fine corresponds to a penalty of 750 euros for each of the sites, that the court stated had ‘still not be been protected’ despite the Portuguese Government having been ordered seven years ago to comply with EU laws. The fine will be reduced once a site is brought into compliance.

The court said in a statement that ‘these are particularly serious breaches of EU environmental law, in which Portugal has persisted’, whereas ‘its territory hosts rich biodiversity – including 99 habitat types and 335 species covered by the Habitats Directive .´

The European Commission has battled for years to try to force Portugal to conserve and protect habitats and species in areas that should have been designated for conservation under the EU Habitats Directive, that established Natura 2000– the world’s largest ecological network .


Under EU law, sites of community importance include Peneda-Geres – Portugal’s only National park – the natural park Lithoral Norte and the Minho and Lima rivers. Also included are Valongo, home to rare fern species and an important site for the golden-striped salamander, the Serra D’Arga mountain and Corno do Bico, a protected landscape.

The Government was ordered by court to comply with the EU Habitats Directive  in a case brought by the European Commission in 2019 after allegations it had failed to designate sites of community importance as special areas of conservation (SAC).

Under the directive, countries had to designate sac sites that needed protection within six years, with accompanying measures to protect rare habitats and species. In 2019 the court found that Portugal had failed to fulfil its obligations to designate 61 areas under the Atlantic and Mediterranean biodiversity classification.

Although a spokesman of the government declared that ‘’very little remains to be done for the work to be completed and to fully comply with the obligations arising from the Habitats Directive’, environmental NGO ZERO (Association for a Sustainable Terrestrial System) criticised the government for not taking the implementation of environmental projects seriously.

Enjoy your week          Aproveite a semana               (pic Sapo/Ptres)






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Javali

Steady increase in the number of wild boars in the country

Javali (wild boar, wild swine or wild pig) has become one of the most controversial wild mammals in Portugal. Once mainly restricted in remote forested and mountainous areas, populations have rapidly expanded and are now present across much of the country.

The wild boar is a pig native to much of Eurasia. The species is now one of the wides-ranging mammals in the world and has been assessed as least concern on the IUCN Red List due to its range, high numbers, and adaptability to a diversity of habitats.

The species are divided in four regional groupings (Western, Eastern, Indian, and Indonesian). The wild boars live in matriarchal societies consisting of females and their young. Fully grown males are usually solitary outside the breeding season. The species has well developed canine teeth, which protrude from the mouths of adult males.

The wild boar has a long history of association with humans, having been the ancestor of domestic pig breeds as from 13,000 BCE in the Near East (Tigris Basin). The Portuguese word javali stems from the Arabic word ‘jabalii’ (meaning ountaineers’).There was also a separate domestication in China some 8,000 years ago.

The English term ‘boar’ is mostly referred to wild males, but is also used to refer to domesticated, male breeding pigs. In domestic pigs most of their bodyweight is concentrated in the posterior, which is the opposite of wild boars, where most of the muscles are concentrated in the head and shoulders.

In the Mediterranean region, males average 50 kg in weight (females 45 kg). The animal’s head is very large, taking up to one-third of the body’s length, and well suited for digging. The head acts as a plough, while the powerful neck muscles allow to upturn considerable amounts of soil. The animal’s main predator in Europe is the wolf.

According to the European density map – produced by the international network ENETWILD with reference values from the European Wildlife Observatory (EOW) – the wild boar is, after the roe deer, the most widespread hoofed mammal in Europe, inhabiting a wide range of environments, from forests and scrubland to agricultural areas and high altitudes with harsh winters.

The EOW states that hunting data show a steady increase in the number of wild boars in Europe. This growth leads to concerns about damage to agriculture, traffic risks and the potential spread of infectious diseases such as African swine fever. Nowadays, Portugal is home to 400,000 wild boars with a clear increase (25%) over the past 10 years.

Happy reading                       Boa leitura                   (pic Wikip/Sapo)



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