Decision of the Vila do Bispo City Council, because of the Autocaravanas who settle without complying with rules.
The chamber of Bishop villagein the Algarve, wants order in the circulation of AutoCaravanas They settle without complying with rules in natural parks or even in urban spaces, creating problems with local communities.
“What we want is that things are organized in a legally. Because everything that brings a turismo that is not the one we intend, brings pollution, brings lack of hygiene, even brings public health problems”The mayor of Vila do Bispo, Rute Silva told Lusa.
A prohibition of parking in natural parks, most of the municipality’s territory, it is already a reality that often It is not fulfilledbut puts other problems that have to be solved.
“I can give you an example: we have parking lots of schools That in the morning, when parents will take the boys to schools, they are busy by Autocaravanas, ”said the mayor.
The House has placed a signal to ban this type of parking, but want to go further.
The Municipality Algarvio (Faro District) will start the public discussion of a regulation proposal so that the caravans and autocaravans are prohibited from staying overnight within urban perimetersas already happens in natural parks, except for places planned for this purpose, such as areas of service or campsites.
“What we need is to create more infrastructure, That is, areas of service or campshop, so that the Autocaravanas can go to the right places, ”said Ruth Silva.
The municipality is already licensing more service areas for Autocaravanas, which at this time of invade areas next to the beachesin places sometimes poorly accessible.
“We know that the Republican National Guard and the authorities, namely the ICNF [Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas]do punctually evaluation, inspection situations. But with the staff that exist I also understand that the authorities are unable to do this supervision more often and to ensure compliance with the legislation, because in what the legislation says is that the overnight is prohibited in a natural park, ”said Rute Silva.
The responsibility of overseeing compliance with the rules is mainly to GNR and the maritime police, who sometimes do not have an easy task.
“Although this zone is much sought after all year round, [no verão] Most people looking for this area are foreign citizens, youth, Who come looking for a contact with nature, who come looking for surfing and who are coming from the various parts of the world looking for these paradise sites, ”said the commander of GNR’s Territorial Detachment, Francisca Albergaria.
Security forces try to sensitize offenders to comply with the rules, but in many situations they have to have a heavier hand.
“Our primordial approach and what we should give primacy is to sensitize, that is, to inform people, to convey to them the necessary information to know what they can and cannot do. We arrived at a point where we cannot close our eyes To the infractions that are before us, and then we will have to go through the inspection, and if people then have an infringement, we have to pass to the legislation and apply the assessment records, ”said Francisca Albergaria.
According to GNR data, in 2024 were prepared 346 records of offense and two arrests made for drug trafficking and driving without legal qualification, in 11 planned inspection actions, with a total of 129 military personnel and the participation of the Maritime Police.
Already this year, there were seven inspection actions with a total of 51 military personnel, and 171 records of offense were prepared.
“The main problem is this type of tourism often Do not obey our rules or rules national, or national legislation, and thus have deviant behaviors. The main problem focuses here on Southwest Alentejo Natural Park and Costa Vicentinawhere we recurrently have some complaints from local”Said the captain of the port of Lagos and local police commander Hugo da Guia.
There is currently Two service areas or campshop that can receive caravans, soon will be five, but entrepreneurs in the sector want, above all, that there is an increase in information Fornecidized to this type of tourists.
“As I said, here in our county [Vila do Bispo], 98% will possibly be foreigners, many of them do not even know what the legislation in Portugalmany of them don’t even know they are inside a natural park. Because even you [jornalistas]When they now came from Faro, they saw no sign saying welcome to the natural park. There is no, there is no exist, ”said the director of Salema Eco Camp, Joaquim Lourenço.
The phenomenon of autocaravanism has reached considerable dimensions in recent years in the Algarve, developing in a context of informality that makes it a focus of environmental conflicts and territory planning.
Duly framed, this type of tourism can no longer be a threat and become an opportunity with an important economic return.
