LPN comment under the Public Consultation of the amended Environmental Impact Assessment of Caminho das Ginjas Paúl da Serra Project

With an area of 15 thousand hectares, the Laurissilva Forest of Madeira is the most extensive and well preserved Laurissilva of the Atlantic islands. The proposed intervention work in this project is a serious and unnecessary aggression to this landscape that is not in line with the present protection and classification status. These several protection ‘layers’ included the state of Special Conservation Area under the Habitats Directive of the European Union, which forces the Regional Government to protect the area, so that both the Laurissilva Forest of Madeira and its 39 species of rare and threatened plants and animals are maintained or restored in a favorable conservation status. We regret that the Madeira Regional Government, through its Agricultural and Rural Development Regional Secretary, is the proponent of the execution project of the work “Caminho das Ginjas – Paúl da Serra”.

Read the technical advice here (in Portuguese).