In response to Lusa, the ICNF explains that the republishing of the PNPG borders had an initial moment of public discussion between February 27th and March 24th in which “some participations were received through the online platform (participa.pt).”

“Nevertheless, a technical anomaly impede access to the content of any of those participations and, despite the efforts made to recover those records, it’s concluded with the repeating of the process,” the ICNF justified, adding that the new public consultation will play out between September 19th and October 17th.

The warning of opening a new public discussion period for the republishing of the PNPG limits was published on Tuesday by Diário da República.

The ICNF underlines that “the guarantees produced” with this proposal “will result in the solving of small errors that were identified using the highest rigour, with there not being in any situation natural values that have stopped being covered by the limits of the protected area.”

The Institute explained that the PNPG was the first protected area in the country, through the Decree nº 187/71 of May 8th, which defined the borders of the area, which haven’t been altered since.

“These cartographic limits made with the existing supports at the time were later developed with use of geographic information systems (SIG), with the inherent difficulties related to the transposition of scale and support,” the ICNF stated.

In that sense, the ICNF highlights that “the updates brought to the PNPG borders consist of the adequation to the new SIG tools and the current model of requirements for mapmaking and geographic information, based on norms, tools and technologies that are common and up-to-date, transposing cartography in vigour to larger scales.”

Beyond that, it also coincides with “the densification of the descriptive with the integration of coordinates.”

“With the numerous advantages from the point of view of higher levels of precision and accuracy, a more detailed and rigorous description will come to be, but also a simpler description to interpret onto the land and, above all, unequivocal,” the ICNF stated.

The PNPG occupies an area of 69,693 acres and covers territory of the municipalities of Melgaço, Arcos de Valdevez and Ponte da Barca in the district of Viana do Castelo, Terras de Bouro in Braga district, and Montalegre in Vila Real district.