The President of the Government of Madeira said this Thursday that it is difficult to make decisions on maritime policy because they do not fit into electoral cycles and stressed that the expansion of the Selvagens reserve is a historic milestone.
“Let’s be frank and objective: a large number of decisions are not made because they do not fit into the electoral cycles,” said Miguel Albuquerque, adding: “It is much easier to make political decisions with an impact on the media world in the short term than to make decisions like these, which have a longer-term impact.”
Miguel Albuquerque, who heads the executive of the PSD/CDS-PP coalition from Madeira, was speaking at the end of the conference “Wild Islands – A Catalyst for the National Sustainable Blue Economy”, which took place in Funchal, within the framework of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the creation of that reserve, a sub-archipelago located about 300 kilometers south of Madeira.
The official said that the expansion of the reserve, formalized in March 2022, resulted from a joint decision of the Regional Government and the Government of the Republic, headed by the socialist António Costa, with the support of the UN and the National Geographic Society.
“March 22 is in our history,” he declared, reinforcing: “We are the European country that, at the moment, has the largest marine reserve in the North Atlantic.”
The Selvagens reserve now covers 2,677 square kilometers in an area of 12 nautical miles around the islands, where all existing species are fully protected from extractive activities, such as fishing or the exploitation of inert materials.
The Chief of Staff of the Navy and National Maritime Authority, Admiral Gouveia e Melo, also spoke at the end of the conference and warned, for his part, that the preservation of marine areas necessarily implies the capacity of the State to appropriate the sea.
“Whoever thinks that international law is enough to guarantee our rights, sleep well, because one day they will wake up very worried,” he said.
Gouveia e Melo considers that the Portuguese Navy “will always have an important and relevant role” and underlined the “holistic vision” of this branch of the Armed Forces, in the performance of military and civil missions.
“Let us not forget that in these areas, which are protected areas, in the first place and at the base of everything is the possession of the sea. This possession is being discussed today, it is being violently discussed in certain cases, ”he warned.
The President of the Regional Government of Madeira and the Chief of Staff of the Navy and National Maritime Authority will travel to the Savage Islands on Friday, in a trip that will also be attended by the Minister of National Defense, Helena Carreiras, and the UN Special Envoy of the Secretary General for the Oceans, Peter Thomson.
Source: Observadora
