NGOs warn renewables acceleration plan threatens endangered species

Conservation groups are challenging the government's Sectoral Programme for Renewable Energy Acceleration Zones (PSZAER), whose public consultation closes on 15 July. The Platform for Sustainability and Biodiversity of Algarve and Alentejo and Rewilding Portugal say the roughly 455,000 hectares earmarked overlap with habitats critical to endangered species, including the Iberian lynx, imperial eagle and Bonelli's eagle, and migratory bird corridors in the Algarve mountains. They criticise the plan for allowing solar and wind projects without case-by-case environmental assessment, ignoring cumulative impacts and project concentration, and failing to bindingly protect ecological corridors. Both groups demand stronger safeguards before approval.