The connecting pathway between the municipality of Albufeira and the Via Algarvia, known as Ligação 7 (literally, Connection 7), has been denounced for its unacceptable environmental conditions.


The Via Algarvia, according to its website, is an ‘extensive route (240km) that will function as the backbone of walking paths of the region, in order to promote other existing paths, as well as to complement the offer in accordance with the choices and abilities of walkers’. While Ligação 7, inaugurated in 2017 at an approximate cost of around thirty-five thousand euros, makes sure that Albufeira is integrated into the greater project.


The Albufeira Municipality has boasted of hosting over forty thousand hikers and cyclists on its trails, seeing it as a ‘sure bet on knowledge in the fields of biology, fauna, flora, geography, and all areas related to nature’.


With that in mind, the Albufeira chapter of the PAN Party (People Animals Nature) has reportedly found numerous cases of ‘fly tipping, illegal dumping, clandestine encampments and knocked over trail markers’. Consequently, the party has called for immediate action on behalf of the competent authorities.


For PAN, the issue is especially problematic given that ‘the world’s gaze is focused on the problem of waste, plastic, climate change, [and] human environmental impact’.