The basis for the creation of the Alverca Salt Pans Nature Reserve has been laid. The Municipality of Vila Franca de Xira has bought approximately 40 hectares of land on the waterfront and intends to classify part of it as a protected area.
At the end of 2023, Vila Franca de Xira City Council completed the acquisition of approximately 40 hectares along the Alverca waterfront, encompassing the former salt pans and the Alverca wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). This business lays the foundation for the creation of Alverca Salt Pans Nature Reserveat the same time as regularizing the situation of the wastewater treatment plant.
According to the Municipality of Vila Franca de Xira, the land now bought is covered "of enormous importance for the municipal public interest, since it allows the creation of the necessary and appropriate conditions for the constitution of the Alverca Salt Pans Nature Reserve"as you can read in a statement sent to newsrooms. The municipality will also take possession of the building and all the facilities of the WWTP, which was built more than two decades ago and is operated by Águas do Tejo Atlântico, a public company in which it is a shareholder, along with the central state and other municipalities in Greater Lisbon.
The council now intends to promote and guarantee the classification of part of the land now acquired as a local protected area, "constituting the Salinas de Alverca Local Nature Reserve, on the basis of and in accordance with the Legal Framework for Nature Conservation and Biodiversity". The deed for the acquisition of the 40 hectares was signed on December 20th, for a total price of 174,639 euros.
The vila-franquense municipality also says that "the acquisition of this property of great environmental value, allocated to the Municipal Ecological Reserve, will contribute to the harmonious balance between socially essential activities of high public interest, such as the one carried out at the WWTP, and nature, with a view to protecting fauna and flora, as well as guaranteeing the enhancement of the environment and environmental sustainability, while at the same time enhancing mobility in the south of the municipality".
According to Público, the idea of setting up the Salinas de Alverca Nature Reserve, in an area that is even classified as biotype Corine which is considered to be one of the most important nesting areas for wild birds in the Lisbon metropolitan area, is more than ten years old. As the newspaper recalls, in 2014, the Vila Franca de Xira Municipal Assembly unanimously approved a BE proposal to create a nature reserve on the former salt pans. However, the process was prolonged due to legal challenges by a company belonging to the Espírito Santo Group, Arco Central, which owns the land, which challenged in court the decision of the City Council to reject a subdivision project for the construction of warehouses in that area.due to environmental concerns.
According to the same newspaper, Arco Central was born in the 1990s out of a partnership between the real estate company Obriverca, which had bought the land on which the old Alverca salt pans were located to build the warehouses, and Caixa Geral de Depósitos. Arco Central, which later became part of the Espírito Santo Group, decided in 2013 to challenge the local authority's refusal of the plot in court, claiming that the project complied with Vila Franca de Xira's Municipal Master Plan (PDM). At the time, the six combined votes of the opposition in the Town Hall (three from the CDU and three from the PSD-led coalition) prevailed over the five of the Socialist executive body, which recognized the possibility of Arco Central owning some consolidated rights in the area. After the most recent negotiations, the municipality and the "ex-BES" group reached an agreement for the sale of the 40 hectares. Fernando Paulo Ferreira (PS), the current mayor, told Público that the delay was due to the company's difficulties in obtaining all the land registers needed for the deed.
Near the area of the future Salinas de Alverca Nature Reserve, a new section of the Vila Franca riverside cycle path is under construction. In the Forte da Casa area, it already links up with the path that connects Loures and Lisbon, is now being completed between Alverca and Sobralinho.
