Quercus publicly denounced the intention of the Covilhã City Council to fell approximately 1400 cork oaks, including dozens of centenary specimens, to proceed with the expansion of the Tortosendo Industrial Park. This intervention is part of the revision of the Municipal Master Plan of the municipality, which is under public discussion until September 4. The affected area will also include 10 primary residences, whose owners will be expropriated to make way for industrial lots.
The environmental organization highlights that the current industrial zone already built has half of its lots empty or abandoned, and that the need for expansion is due to the fact that the owners of these lots are practicing excessively high prices. Quercus considers that the municipality should expropriate these lots or force the owners to build, instead of destroying a natural area and expropriating families from their homes.
At the environmental level, the project presents significant impacts, as beyond the cork oaks and the grove they form, there are 2 watercourses and 3 ponds, in an area with high water retention and several springs on the land that will be waterproofed. Quercus also criticizes that the environmental report of the PDM revision omits the existence of the cork oaks, and that the municipality refused to include the information even after formal notification from ICNF, justifying itself with the absence of georeferencing of the trees.
Quercus appeals to ICNF and CCDR-Centro not to authorize the felling, arguing that the expansion over the forest stand is not the only viable alternative, since there are empty industrial lots available at accessible prices. The organization recalls that the cork oak is a legally protected species and appeals to the mobilization of citizens to participate in the public discussion until the deadline.
