Serra d'Arga Heads for Regional Protected Landscape Status, and Anyone Can Comment on the Draft Rules From Early November

The four councils that share the Serra d'Arga, a granite massif in the Alto Minho, have opened the formal process to classify it as a Paisagem Protegida Regional (Regional Protected Landscape). Aviso n.º 26428/2026/2 (notice), published in the Diário da República (official journal) on Friday 23 October, announces a public discussion of the proposal. It is issued by the Associação de Municípios da Serra d'Arga (AMSA, the Serra d'Arga Association of Municipalities), which groups Caminha, Ponte de Lima, Viana do Castelo and Vila Nova de Cerveira, and is signed by the president of its executive council, Vasco Ferraz.

What is on the table

Four documents go out for comment: the draft management regulation, the proposed boundary, the report setting out the grounds for classification, and the executive council's decision. The notice does not give the area or the rules themselves, and we could not find the documents online on 23 October. Lusa, the national news agency, puts the whole serra at about 10,000 hectares.

Under the nature conservation law, Decreto-Lei n.º 142/2008 (decree-law), a protected landscape is an area shaped by the harmonious interaction of people and nature, with great aesthetic, ecological or cultural value. Areas of regional or local scope are classified and managed by municipalities or their associations rather than by the state, and classification must be preceded by public discussion. The four councils agreed in 2020 to set up AMSA for this purpose (founding agreement).

Rules that already apply

The heart of the serra is already protected under the EU's Natura 2000 network as the Zona Especial de Conservação (ZEC, Special Area of Conservation) Serra de Arga. ICNF's management plan (ICNF is the nature and forests institute) puts it at 4,493 hectares: 2,140.8 in Viana do Castelo, 1,887.5 in Caminha and 447.5 in Ponte de Lima.

Decreto-Lei n.º 36/2026, in force since February, set its conservation rules. Municipal plans covering the area must ban new quarries and mines and the expansion of licensed ones, and ban building on rural land, with exceptions such as rebuilding and limited extensions. Renewable energy installations on rural land need ICNF's approval, outside villages, existing buildings and small self-consumption units. Motorised sport and recreation off roads and tracks on rural land is banned.

According to Lusa, the classification push began in 2017, partly to keep mining out, and in 2022 the Environment Ministry dropped the Arga area from a lithium prospecting tender.

How to comment

• When. The discussion lasts 30 working days, starting on the tenth working day after publication. By our count, allowing for the 1 and 8 December public holidays, that is Friday 6 November to Monday 21 December; check the date with the council before relying on it.
• Where to read the documents. At the town halls of Ponte de Lima, Caminha, Viana do Castelo and Vila Nova de Cerveira during office hours on working days, and on each council's website, including cm-pontedelima.pt.
• Who can comment. Anyone, with objections, suggestions, observations or requests for clarification.
• How. In writing, on the form available at those places, addressed to the President of the AMSA Executive Council. Hand it in or post it to Município de Ponte de Lima, Praça da Rainha, 20, 4990-062 Ponte de Lima, or email [email protected] within the period.

What it means for you

If you own land, a house or a business in the parishes around the serra, or are planning to build or convert a property there, read the draft regulation and the boundary map once they are posted: they will add the regional rules to the Natura 2000 rules above.