Long considered highly vulnerable to the march of development, there is now reason to be optimistic that this unique wetland is on the way to becoming a Special Protected Area under EU law. Len Port reports

Flocks of visiting Greater Flamingos are the number one attraction here, but the unprotected lagoon also harbours several rare resident species, include the Black-winged Stilt, Purple Gallinule and Little Bittern, as well as scores of interesting migrants.

The continued existence of this smallish but very special wetland in the heart of the tourist-intensive south coast has long been threatened on the one hand by pollution and on the other by expanding development.

The area consists of a shallow lake of varying degrees of salinity, fringed in parts by salt marsh, all tucked in behind a broad ridge of vegetated sand dunes running parallel to the uninterrupted stretch of beach between Albufeira and Armação be Pera.

The marsh used to occupy a bigger area before much of the east side of the lake was drained to make way for the 18-hole Salgados golf course, which opened in 1994., Paradoxically, the course gave a certain amount of protection to the lagoon by acting as a green buffer zone, but at the same time it environmentally complicated matters.

An old and inefficient sewage plant to the northeast discharges water that has undergone only primary treatment and contains pathogens. The regular build-up of toxins on its doorstep together with winter rains liable to cause flooding oblige the owners of Salgados golf course each spring to drain and refresh the lake by bulldozing a channel to link it to the sea.

Hundreds of flamingos and rafts of others waterfowl and waders are forced to move on, though many would have departed for their normal breeding haunts anyway. Fortunately for the Salgados breeding species, most notably the raucous-voiced stilts and rather shy gallinules, the drainage is timed in consultation with the Ministry of the Environment to cause as little disruption as possible. Afterwards, the lake quickly refills.

A further threat to the ecology of the unprotected lagoon has loomed in recent years with plans by another development company to build a holiday complex, including a second 18-hole golf course, two hotels and a large number of villas on the northern and western shores of the lagoon. To make matters worse, plans to replace the old sewage plant with a new one further inland threaten to cut off the lagoon’s important, albeit polluted, freshwater supply.

Despite Government resistance, the Portugal bird protection organisation SPEA, together with Britain’s RSPB, has been relentlessly pressing for the Salgados lagoon to be declared and managed as a Special Protected Area. Such areas are strictly protected sites classified in accordance with the 1979 EC Directive on the conservation of wild birds. They are classified for rare and vulnerable birds and for regularly occurring migratory species.

Round-table negotiations have been going on between the protection agencies, the development company, the regional water authority and all the governmental bodies involved. There has been significant progress. For example, the development company has agreed to half its proposed number of beds from 10,000 to 5,000 and to allow a generous buffer zone between the edge of the proposed new golf course and the shore of the lagoon.

© This is an extract from an article first published in the Algarve Property Magazine of September 2006