Government reacts to the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice on the extraction of sand at Praia de Fonte Bila

The Minister of Agriculture and Environment, Gilberto Silva, gave a press conference, yesterday, June 29, reacting to the annulment of the Government order on the extraction of sand in Praia de Fonte Bila on the island of Fogo, by the Supreme Court of Justice.

“The Government will appeal and submit to the Supreme Court of Justice a request for an embargo on the judgment, to allow the islands of Fogo and Brava not to be left without access to sand for civil construction, but also to prevent the exploitation of sand. sand illegally in several places, which would have a negative impact on the environment”, Minister of Agriculture and Environment, Gilberto Silva.

According to the Guardian of the Environment portfolio, the Government will abide by the decision of the Supreme Court, since it understands that the Supreme Court produced a judgment with a prevention background, however it also advanced that the Government will appeal since the law allows the government, in this case, to request the embargo of the judgment.

“We respect the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice, but the Government has sufficient grounds to reassess the decision taken by the Supreme Court, let's see: 1st we authorize exploration in a place that represents 0.4% of what is the beach of Praia de Fonte Bila, 2nd we have mitigation measures that allow no turtle nests to be damaged and 3rd we have statistics that demonstrate the increase in turtle spawning even in the years in which we authorize temporary exploitation”.

With mitigating measures and a considered distance from the spawning site, it is possible to reconcile economic and environmental interests, the Government, above all the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, as responsible for the administration of the Environment in Cape Verde, must be the entity that has the greatest interest in this sense, interest in nature conservation, but also to ensure that there are conditions for the exploitation of natural resources that the island has for the economy of the island itself, pointed out the minister.

Regarding the alternatives that are being presented that there is sand elsewhere on the island, namely in salt pans, the minister advanced that the dunes are also protected, and that the sand that is there does not cover the needs of the island, being an unsustainable exploitation.

“This is private land and the State cannot, in its search for solutions, be looking at private land, but at the sustainability of exploitation, and this is clearly not the best alternative. The defense of this option configures, from our point of view, a lack of elements to support this option, or else some lobby in favor of the exploitation by private individuals of sand in Fogo. We are not against private interests, but we have to understand that with regard to this situation, the Government has carefully weighed the pros and cons of the various options and decided to maintain an option that everyone knows about, which concentrates the activity in a single place, duly controlled and where we already have experience that nature itself ends up replacing what is taken away”.

The Minister of Agriculture and Environment concluded by stating that the Government will do everything in its power to ensure that nature is conserved, as well as the preservation of the island's economy. “Foguenses need infrastructure, income, employment and the government must seek to reconcile all interests and naturally allow for the sustainable development of the island”, he concluded.