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ClientEarth Communications

16th May 2024

Wildlife & habitats
Defending habitats
Europe

Portugal has abandoned plans to build new airport on nature reserve after our lawsuit

The Portuguese government has announced it will abandon plans to build Lisbon’s new airport on an internationally protected nature site, following our long-running legal case against it.

Along with Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves (SPEA, BirdLife Portugal) and eight Portuguese NGOs, we launched a lawsuit to stop the plans to build the capital’s new airport on the Tagus Estuary, Portugal’s most important wetland and a crucial safe haven for millions of migratory birds.

The plans provoked national and international outcry from scientists and the general public, and our lawsuit had the backing of Portugal’s Public Prosecutor – driving the Portuguese authorities to review and eventually drop the plans. This means that the Montijo airport on the Tagus Estuary will no longer go ahead – but a new airport will instead be built at an alternative location near Alcochete.

The background:

The Portuguese government was gearing up to build a new airport on the country’s most important wetland – the Tagus Estuary.

The area is on the path of hundreds of thousands of migratory wetland birds that congregate there for the winter or on their journey between Northern Europe and Africa. It is also protected under numerous international treaties due to its importance for these protected species.

So we stepped in. Working with Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves (SPEA), and supported by seven national NGOs as well as being backed by local and international researchers and organisations, we filed a court action against the government, aiming to annul Montijo Airport’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

Why did we take action?

At a time when we need to be protecting and restoring our most precious habitats to help tackle both the biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis, the Portuguese authorities were pushing ahead with a project that would irreversibly compromise one of Europe’s most important wetlands – as well as unavoidably generating vast amounts of carbon emissions.

The EIS is an important document which should consider the impacts of any development on the environment. The law requires that a series of tests be carried out before a development can go ahead which affects a protected site. The Portuguese authorities failed to carry out those tests and have simply proposed to ‘relocate’ the habitats and birds that will be affected by the airport.

Protected migratory birds and habitats in the Tagus would have been permanently disturbed if the airport was constructed. Failure to fully assess the project’s environmental impact, and suggesting that birds can and will simply inhabit nearby salt flats, is a clear breach of EU and national laws.

At a time when we need to be protecting and restoring our most precious habitats to help tackle both the biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis, the Portuguese authorities were pushing ahead with a project that would irreversibly compromise one of Europe’s most important wetlands – as well as unavoidably generating vast amounts of carbon emissions.

Soledad Gallego, ClientEarth lawyer

How else would the airport have been a problem?

The potential consequences also extended beyond damage to the Tagus Estuary. Because of its importance for migratory birds, damage or disturbance to the Tagus Estuary would also have an effect on sites all along the migration route to northern Europe. Soledad added: “Montijo Airport could have had far-reaching consequences felt well beyond Portuguese borders. Failure to consider this would have caused irreversible damage to nature, people and the climate.”

The project was heavily criticised both at national and international level. In Portugal, it had been met by public and political outcry. Environmental groups in Portugal had also expressed their disapproval, with experts citing the construction as a “crime against nature”.

In the Netherlands, thousands of people signed a petition against the construction, as it would seriously threaten the migratory Black-tailed Godwit, the Dutch national bird.

What happened after we filed our case?

In a first major success for our case, Portugal’s top legal official issued guidance confirming the project’s insurmountable issues.

The Public Prosecutor’s legal Opinion strongly supported our action, piling pressure on the Portuguese government to abandon the project.

The Public Prosecutor drew attention to the major deficiencies, technical errors and inconsistencies in assessing the impact the airport would have on the Special Protected Area in the Tagus Estuary, as already highlighted during the environmental assessment of the project and as required under EU nature laws.

The Opinion also highlighted that the cross-border impacts the project would have had on international and European migratory birds and therefore on other protected sites across Europe, were unjustifiably understated by the authorities. Downplaying the airport’s transboundary impact meant that the authorities avoided consulting other countries who might be affected by the future project.

In 2024, the Portuguese government announced it will abandon plans to build the airport, in a huge success for our case.