Articles > Eco-villas on the Costa Azul

For most people, the word ecotourism might conjure up beards, home-knit sweaters and neo-hippies, but while there may be a holistic attitude towards health at Mata de Sesimbra, the old clichés need not apply. Instead this partnership venture between Portuguese developer Pelicano, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and green consultants Bioregional.

Once built, “The Village” (as it will be known) will look like any other coastal resort complete with golf courses, terraced villas, swimming pools, stylish apartments and three luxury hotels. However, “substantial hidden differences will put the project apart from any yet created – aerobic digesters will treat waste water for manicured golf greens and recycled steel and zero carbon concrete will used for construction” says Paulo Reis-Silva, head architect at Pelicano .

Growing mass tourism and clandestine villa construction has forced Portugal’s new Socialist government into tightening up planning laws and bulldozing illegal developments. “Over-development has also led to an unprecedented demand for sustainable tourism – the kind of low-impact architecture needed to bring in the much-coveted tourists yet blending into the fragile coastal landscape” says Reis-Silva. His company Pelicano, will undertake the construction work on what he says will become, “the world’s first-ever integrated sustainable building, tourism, nature conservation and reforestation project.” Work is scheduled to begin early 2006 on three four-star ecohotels franchised out to (as yet unnamed) hotel group and 6,000 ecovillas. Reis-Silva hopes, that Pelicano will complete the first phase of building by 2007 - he has already supervised a number of experimental buildings to test materials and architecture including a “prototype villa”.

Overall investment in the project will total around £670 million including the initial £13 million conservation costs - construction costs will reach £534 million and a public transport and road network will cost £60 million - playing fields, leisure and cultural facilities are expected to cost a further £70 million. The new resort will be within easy commuting distance of Lisbon in an area already known for its pristine beaches and heavy pressure from urban developers that comes with the blue flags. This pressure has already caused some serious problems of habitat fragmentation, coastal erosion, and disturbance of protected wildlife species.

There are of course those who oppose the scheme saying it is far too big or that there is no justification for building there at all - but this time developers have the blessing of the main Portuguese green groups (Quercus LPN) who are actively involved in the enormous conservation program. According to Eduardo Gonçalves, president of SOS Lynx and acting WWF International consultant to the project, “The area suffers from serious problems of forest degradation and abandonment, and is highly prone to fires – we are already in the process of creating closed-off protected areas for vulnerable nesting birds, recovering wetland and coastal habitats”. Gonçalves says, the WWF team plans to use, “the receipts from the development as a form of a green tax to fund a number of conservation schemes in the 12,800 acres of cork and pine forest surrounding the resort - limited to 1,200 acres of redundant commercial land including gravel pits and mines”.

WWF hope to see this area as part of nature reserve in which habitat corridors, linking surrounding protected areas will create safe havens for vulnerable nesting birds such as the Bonelli eagle. The site will also be home to one of Europe’s biggest privately financed forest restoration projects which aims to recreate native indigenous woodland – mainly cork oak and umbrella pine – replacing the existing eucalyptus and non-native pine forest.

Gonçalves, claims that, “Originally there were plans for eleven (conventional) mass tourism development schemes in this area. However, AFLOPS (the regional association of forestry producers) and (real estate developers) Pelicano proposed an alternative project which has won local and national support”. Gonçalves believes, "Mata de Sesimbra is not just about selling a holiday experience but a complete lifestyle; "Bioregional’s One Planet Living brand will cover everything from food to toiletries – all our products will carry officially certified organic status." Gonçalves has drummed up support from at least 20 local cooperatives which will supply over half of all the organic produce for the resort’s hotels, shops and restaurants. Gonalves says, “The possibilities for the project are endless and plans are even being drawn up to include a school based on Steiner education." According to Gonçalves, “tourism is eating into our natural capital which can often have a very negative impact on the environment. New models such as Mata de Sesimbra are vital if tourism is to go hand in hand with sustainable development”.

For Pooran Desai, founder and director of Bioregional, creators of the One Planet Living model, “One of our main aims is to increase people’s health and happiness levels – consuming more or having increased spending power does not necessarily make people happy”. Desai, who successfully revived south London's lavender and charcoal industry, says it is “time to switch from words to action and put sustainable development into practice – OPL is about finding solutions for some of greatest challenges of our time - climate change and biodiversity loss”.

The resort’s energy needs will be generated by a nearby solar power plant which will feed the equivalent directly into Portugal’s national grid. Desai says Bioregional will help the future complex tackle the growing problem of drought by, “dramatically reducing waste to landfill to just 5 per cent of the national average. Households will use rainwater collection and waste water recycling systems to achieve huge cuts in domestic water consumption and irrigation.”

Bioregional have learnt a great deal from their Bedzed project in Beddington south London which was the original One Planet Living (OPL) model a decade ago. According to Desai, “BioRegional and WWF will work with the Portuguese project team over a ten-year period as advisors” – his consultancy is also working on dozens of similar OPL communities around Europe including the massive London 2012 Olympics development which Desai claims will be “the greenest Olympics ever”.

Britons are expected to make up the bulk of residents at the resort - over 5,000 bought second homes in Portugal in 2004 and the numbers are set to increase encouraged by TV programmes such as Channel 4's A Place in the Sun. But One Planet Living properties will not come cheap selling from between £170,000 and £250,000 for the larger and more luxurious villas. There will also be the option of time-sharing, renting and flexible leasing options. The community will create a sustainable transport network featuring car pools, non-petrol vehicles, and a cycle route encompassing the entire site.

Desai aims to, “Eliminate the need for private cars on the resort - but the biggest challenge for BioRegional is providing environmentally friendly transport for travellers to get to the holiday village”. To get around this problem Bioregional will offer a 2-week cruise to the resort – six days of which will be spent at sea. Desai is pleased with the alternative because the “carbon use per capita will be slashed” – “we have already given away our first package holiday and the lucky couple will take the cruise ship to Lisbon and stay at the prototype OPL villa at Mata de Sesimbra.”

“The kinds of people already expressing interest in buying a OPL property on the site are varied but many have a specific interest in sustainable living - some simpy like the look of the area and are health conscious but others are concerned that they are living and holidaying at the expense of poorer nations”, says Desai. One Planet Living Communities adopt ten guiding principles including zero carbon and zero waste encompassing not just homes and workspace, but also shared infrastructure such as schools, factories, health & leisure facilities, transport and food links to show that people can live within their fair share of the earth’s resources. The Mata de Sesimbra Village will demonstrate that sustainable development is both feasible and attractive in both the “developed” and “developing” parts of the world.

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