Fundraising by the Finis Terrae Association to finance the costs related to a legal action we intend to take against the Portuguese State.
Finis Terrae is a non-profit association (registered legal entity number 518670236) dedicated to the defense of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park. We have fought, both institutionally and on the ground – in direct confrontations with loggers, in actions to mobilize the local population, and in pickets to defend trees threatened with being cut down by private individuals and public bodies – against the rapid urbanization of this territory, which is also a World Heritage Cultural Landscape (protected by UNESCO) and, in some areas, part of the Natura 2000 Network.
All this action, even with extensive media coverage, has proven insufficient to halt the destruction of the PNSC. All the institutions whose mission is to manage and defend this protected area (the municipal councils of Sintra and Cascais, the ICNF, and the public company Parques de Sintra Monte da Lua, among others) seem to act according to an unspoken political orientation to extinguish the Natural Park and urbanize its territory.
In this context, Finis Terrae has no option but to take legal action against the Portuguese state. Given that the Portuguese courts downplay environmental crime (we have a complaint pending in the Sintra Court for a year and a half without any procedural movement) and that the extinction of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park constitutes irreversible environmental and patrimonial damage that seriously harms the interests of all of us, we will file a complaint with the European Court against the Portuguese state for serious and repeated violations of the Natura 2000 Network, which is European in scope and covers a significant part of the PNSC territory.
Not counting on Finis Terrae for any income other than membership fees, we will do everything we can to save what remains of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, just as we will do everything we can. Thank you very much.
Finis Terrae is a non-profit association (registered legal entity number 518670236) dedicated to the defense of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park. We have fought, both institutionally and on the ground – in direct confrontations with loggers, in actions to mobilize the local population, and in pickets to defend trees threatened with being cut down by private individuals and public bodies – against the rapid urbanization of this territory, which is also a World Heritage Cultural Landscape (protected by UNESCO) and, in some areas, part of the Natura 2000 Network.
All this action, even with extensive media coverage, has proven insufficient to halt the destruction of the PNSC. All the institutions whose mission is to manage and defend this protected area (the municipal councils of Sintra and Cascais, the ICNF, and the public company Parques de Sintra Monte da Lua, among others) seem to act according to an unspoken political orientation to extinguish the Natural Park and urbanize its territory.
In this context, Finis Terrae has no option but to take legal action against the Portuguese state. Given that the Portuguese courts downplay environmental crime (we have a complaint pending in the Sintra Court for a year and a half without any procedural movement) and that the extinction of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park constitutes irreversible environmental and patrimonial damage that seriously harms the interests of all of us, we will file a complaint with the European Court against the Portuguese state for serious and repeated violations of the Natura 2000 Network, which is European in scope and covers a significant part of the PNSC territory.
Finis Terrae does not count with any income other than membership fees, we will do everything we can to save what remains of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, just as we will do everything we can. Thank you very much.
