Alcácer do Sal, Portugal, July 31, 2025 (Lusa) - An agroforestry project for planting mandarins on a 360-hectare plot of land in the municipality of Alcácer do Sal, in the district of Setúbal, where avocado cultivation was planned but rejected, is open for public consultation until 10 September.
The Lusa news agency consulted the Participa portal (www.participa.pt) on Thursday and confirmed that the public consultation phase of the environmental impact assessment process began today.
Expoente Frugal Lda, part of the Aquaterra group, promotes the Murta and Monte Novo Agroforestry Project, which covers a total area of 2,405.83 hectares in the parish of Comporta and the Union of Parishes of Alcácer do Sal (Santa Maria do Castelo and Santiago) and Santa Susana.
According to the Non-Technical Summary of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), the current project team reformulated the project following the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) recommendations in August 2024.
In this new project, with an investment of €67 million, the developer has replaced avocado cultivation with tangerines, reduced the plantation area from 722.24 to 360.63 hectares and reduced the number of underground water abstractions from 34 to 16 boreholes.
“The document states that a drip system fed by 16 vertical boreholes will irrigate the tangerine orchards.”
The project includes support infrastructure - irrigation/pumping houses, water storage tanks for irrigation, photovoltaic panels for self-consumption, power transformation stations, spray preparation basins with a sprayer washing area, septic tanks, and internal and external roads.
According to the document, the main objectives of the agricultural component of this project are focused on “the creation of an agricultural area for mandarin production,” and the project will supply the domestic market and the processing industry.
The project is entirely located within two Special Conservation Areas (ZEC), Comporta/Galé and the Sado Estuary, and also encompasses the entire Important Bird Area (IBA) of the Murta Weir and the Special Protection Area (SPA) of the Murta Weir.
The Sado Estuary Nature Reserve, the Sado Estuary SPA, the Sal Estuary RAMSAR Site and the Sado Estuary IBAs partially intersect it.
The document reports that researchers have identified twelve species of flora considered rare, endemic, threatened or endangered and have defined mitigation and protection measures, such as seed collection and transplantation of some species.
Concerning groundwater consumption, the promoters state in the non-technical summary that the project “uses 65% of the recharge from precipitation converted into vertical flow to the aquifer and relies solely on vertical flow”.
“Annual recharge, based on average precipitation over the last 10 years, is estimated at 3.50 cubic hectometres per year, and the total water requirements of this project are 2.28 cubic hectometres per year,” they specify.
The project includes “the reforestation of 1,650.13 hectares with production forest and the enhancement of 366.12 hectares of ecological conservation areas”.
It also includes a proposal for the restoration of the Murta Dam, interventions in Habitat 2260, with restoration measures and investments to improve its conservation status, and the creation of feeding and refuge sites for wildlife.
“The project maintains a balance between agricultural activity and environmental conservation, occupying 15% of the total area, with the remaining 85% being unplanted area, which includes all areas dedicated to the preservation of natural habitats, forest restoration and ecological corridors,” it said.
We estimate that the harvest season, between January and May, will employ 50 permanent workers and 150 temporary workers.
HYN/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
