Quarries with no environmental oversight — Borba and Vila Viçosa

The Borba and Vila Viçosa region has 232 registered marble quarries, one of the highest densities of mining activity in the country.

Independent surveys point out that over half of these quarries operate with no valid environmental recovery plan, in breach of legislation on landscape recovery of mined areas.

The lack of regular inspection has been identified as the main obstacle to correcting this situation, leaving degraded areas without a recovery plan even after mining has ended.