The association ‘United in Defence of Covas do Barroso’ has been horrified by news that the government is giving British company Savannah Resources €110 million to help develop its locally-contested open-pit lithium mining project in the middle of UNESCO World Agricultural Heritage landscape.
In a press release, the association that has been fighting this project for well over seven years says that by handing over this money the state is effectively “legitimising and sustaining a private initiative that threatens to destroy” an iconic region.
“It is a serious perversion of public interest, disregarding public consultations, local decisions and opinions from environmental associations, compounded by repeated criticism from national and international bodies”, says the release, recalling the fact that the Public Prosecutor’s Office also called for the environmental impact statement of the mine to be annulled on the basis that it is “flawed by violation of the law”; while the committee of the Aarhus Convention concluded that citizens rights were not respected during the public participation exercise.
To be fair, the poor treatment of local people bringing genuine concerns to the table has characterised this saga, and exposed the sinister underbelly of Europe’s ‘green agenda’.
Francisco Venes of UDCB explains in the press statement: “Independent studies have been clear. Environmental evaluation was rushed and superficial and did not fully consider the impacts of this mine.
“How is it that the government can finance a project of this dimension, when it doesn’t know the risks for the environment and for the people’s health? It is completely irresponsible.”
“An environmentally balanced society is not built by sacrificing communities that maintain responsible relationships with the land, but rather by recognising their ecological importance and creating conditions for their continuity”, says the association.
“The future of Barroso lies in valuing its status as World Agricultural Heritage and investing in a sustainable local economy – not in destroying this common heritage. In a region marked by a lack of essential public services, particularly in education and health, it is unacceptable for the government to choose to finance a project that compromises the lives of local populations and mortgages their futures.”
Maria Loureiro, one of many who work the land around Barroso, adds: “We don’t have a hospital or a secondary school close by. The nearest maternity unit is an hour and a half’s drive away. This is abandonment! All we have here is what we have created from a lifetime of work, without help from anyone. And now they even want to take that from us! We are not going to let them. We will fight this to the bitter end.”
This is exactly the feeling that has sustained opposition to this project since it was first mooted, eight years ago when Savannah had completely different people ‘at the helm’. These days the company is ‘more Portuguese’, and the project has the backing of the European Commission.
Many would admit defeat at this point – but not UDCB. The association’s press release ends with the affirmation that “an energy transition that sacrifices the environment and is imposed on populations – rather than being built with them – devalues local experience in the territories and creates worrying anti-democratic precedents. By promoting a project with these characteristics, the government is making a clear political choice: to protect private interests rather than safeguard the rights of the communities it claims to represent. For this reason, it is a government without the credibility to invoke public interest. Unidos em Defesa do Barroso will continue to work to stop this project, enforce the rights of the people and defend the common heritage of the region.”
UDCB has always had the support of its local municipality, even though those in charge have changed over the years. The current mayor (of Boticas), Guilherme Pires, says his council was completely taken by surprise by the news of the government’s non-refundable grant to Savannah. “I am speechless,” he told Correio da Manhã, which carried a long article on local outrage last weekend. “The news left us sad and concerned. We feel that before announcing €110 million for a company that will be mining for lithium, they (the government) should have had a word with us, because we are the ones who will be dealing with the consequences of this project.”
The mayor also pointed out that definitive approval for what amounts to four open pit mines just a few hundred metres from residential communities has not been finalised.
“What stuns me is that everything is being treated as a consummated fact when, in reality, they (the government) are investing in a project that we still don’t know whether it will go forwards or not,” he told CM.
Source material: Unidos em Defesa de Covas do Barroso/ Correio da Manhã
