The PS’s proposal to guarantee free access for Madeirans to the classified trails in the Region will be debated in the Legislative Assembly of Madeira next Wednesday. This initiative makes the second amendment to the Legal Regime of Pedestrian Routes, requiring residents to register in advance to be able to walk on pedestrian routes, be reversed.
In a press statement, the socialists said they opposed the decision to require residents to book a time slot to walk along a levada or pedestrian route. They emphasized that the PS was the party that took the lead in presenting to Parliament a proposal that contradicts the Regional Government Ordinance, published last December, which made it mandatory for Madeirans to register on the ‘SlMplifica’ Portal before starting walks on recommended routes, leaving them dependent on the availability of slots that open every half hour.
SĂlvia Silva, the author of the proposal, explained that while the socialists fully support protecting natural heritage, they strongly oppose measures that limit the mobility of local citizens and residents in Madeira on their own land. She accused the Regional Government of reacting without proper planning to the chaos in nature tourism in the region, introducing late regulations that mainly punish residents, even though the authorities admit the local population’s impact on the routes is minimal.
“The PS does not accept that residents in the Autonomous Region of Madeira cannot freely enjoy the regional natural heritage,” says the deputy, stressing that the Government has no arguments or competence to restrict the access of Madeirans to pedestrian routes and guaranteeing that, if the majority fails the initiative in Parliament, the party will move forward with a request for the unconstitutionality of the measure.
The socialists regret that, despite requests for the Regional Government to justify its decision to condition the mobility of residents, the studies that define the carrying capacity of the routes and the quotas that the regional executive says it has reserved for Madeirans have not yet been published. “Madeirans are forced to comply with meaningless rules and without information to support them, in the style of autocratic regimes,” says SĂlvia Silva.
The deputy condemns the statements of the President of the Institute of Forests and Nature Conservation (IFCN), who, in a “sterile attempt to calm the revolt of the Madeirans attacked in their fundamental rights,” justified that prior registration is related to the maximum load capacity of the routes, but assured that there are enough vacancies so that residents are never blocked from access, which dismantles the need for registration so that the load is not exceeded.
He also recalls that it was the Regional Secretary for Tourism, Environment, and Culture himself who guaranteed that, despite the high influx of tourists to certain routes, the load was never exceeded. Therefore, he adds, it will not be now, after the limitation of entries, with the residual number of residents walking on the trails, that the limits defined for each route will be reached or exceeded.
SĂlvia Silva reaffirms that the potential load that residents represent on the routes must be accounted for, but cannot impede their free access, adding that the issue is controlled by leaving a margin that ensures that the load is never exceeded, which must be fine-tuned with monitoring on the ground.
The socialist parliamentarian also accuses the President of the IFCN, Manuel Filipe, of contradicting himself when he guarantees that the measure promotes security, but then assumes that the Madeirans have never been the problem.
“In practice, it is known and easily verifiable that the IFCN does not comply with the minimum safety requirements on the routes, namely the maintenance of equipment, and it is not the mandatory registration of the few residents who walk in the mountains that will reduce the risks or the occurrence of rescues and rescues. The truth is that the Government of Madeira requires prior registration, but it does not even have the means or capacity to know if citizens have actually accessed the route or when they left it.” SĂlvia Silva.
The PS understands that the Government has a lot to explain, but regrets that, despite the various requests for clarification presented via the Assembly, the executive’s responses are “vague or non-existent and reveal a lack of honesty towards the population and institutions.”
The socialists requested visitation data on the routes and other most visited tourist attractions, studies of the carrying capacity, and also monitoring data on the evolution and state of conservation of these places, specifically Fanal, which were announced by the Environment as part of “a long-term strategy started several years ago and consolidated with concrete and measurable results.” Data on the amounts collected by the IFCN with the fees charged since the entry into force of the ordinance were also requested, as well as information on the application of this money. However, according to the PS, the only answer obtained was that there are no completed studies and that, for this reason, the documents cannot be provided, which allows us to conclude that “the Government of Madeira is not in a position to impose technically grounded rules.”
SĂlvia Silva reinforces that no other party, much less the Regional Government, has been as committed to disciplining the use of pedestrian routes as the PS. In the last four years, the socialists have presented a “handful of proposals” to amend the aforementioned Legal Regime of Pedestrian Routes, but in none of them has the restriction of movement of Madeirans and Porto Santo ever been proposed, as the Government has now done.
The PS therefore appeals to the population to “not be deceived”, stressing that this is not a measure to defend the common good, but “an attack on the rights of Madeirans in their own land,” something that cannot be accepted.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
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