Rewilding Portugal condemns minister's attack on ICNF over blocked project

Rewilding Portugal has issued a statement rejecting remarks by Agriculture and Sea Minister José Manuel Fernandes, who told ICNF officials that laws blocking project approvals should be changed, and called some ICNF leaders "liars, cowards and radicals" after they went public. The NGO welcomes the Portuguese Environment Agency's rejection of the Sophia project, which it had already opposed for breaching ecological principles. It argues environmental law protects public interest rather than private economic interests, defends ICNF and APA independence, and says Portugal's territorial cohesion problems stem from structural inequality, not nature protection.