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Tagus Estuary: new SAC and SPA regime in force since 1 August
It went almost unnoticed alongside the RJUE postponement, yet it came out in the same Diário da República. Decree-Law no. 154/2026, of 31 July (DR no. 147/2026, Series I) completed the classification of the Tagus Estuary special area of conservation (SAC, PTCON0009) begun by Decreto Regulamentar no. 1/2020, of 16 March. It entered into force the day after publication, that is, on 1 August 2026 (article 16).
For anyone designing or licensing, the substance sits in article 4.
Until the plans are revised, the ICNF opinion is mandatory
Article 4(5) is blunt: “Until the revision or amendment of the territorial plans referred to in paragraph 1, and with a view to their conformity with paragraphs 2 and 3, building on rural land is subject to a favourable opinion from ICNF, I. P.” Favourable, not merely issued.
The deadline is 30 working days from the request (paragraph 6). It is suspended where an environmental incidence assessment is carried out as an environmental impact assessment procedure, from the proposal of that procedure until the decision (paragraph 7). A case that falls into EIA stops having a predictable timeline at this stage.
What the plans will have to prohibit
Paragraph 2 requires territorial plans whose intervention area covers the SAC and SPA to include rules prohibiting building on rural land, including removable structures. The exceptions are listed:
- infrastructure and facilities supporting nature conservation, visits, recreation and leisure, sport, marine farming, commercial fishing, tourist activities, agriculture or forestry, and port activity and related uses;
- public collective-use facilities and territorial infrastructure, under Decreto Regulamentar no. 5/2019;
- urban operations on other categories of rural land provided for in a municipal spatial plan;
- reconstruction, demolition, alteration or conservation works;
- extension for housing purposes of buildings with proven residential use, provided the resulting total footprint and sealed area does not exceed 200 m2;
- extension for tourism purposes, without adding storeys and clustered with one of the existing structures, up to 500 m2 of footprint.
Also prohibited: new mineral deposit and mass extraction operations, and the enlargement of existing ones by increasing the licensed area.
And what requires an opinion
Paragraph 3 lists what becomes conditional on a favourable ICNF opinion: building on rural land that is not prohibited, except within rural settlements and dispersed-building areas recorded in a municipal plan, and except reconstruction, demolition, alteration or conservation works; the extensions above, save those not exceeding 50 % of the existing footprint or not producing a total extension above 100 m2; infrastructure supporting marine farming, commercial fishing and port activity in aquatic environments; and coastal defence works.
Where this applies
Article 2 carries no list of municipalities. The SAC area is the one delimited under article 2 and annexes i and ii of Decreto Regulamentar no. 1/2020; the SPA area follows from Decreto-Lei no. 51/95 and Decreto-Lei no. 46/97, revived by Decreto-Lei no. 190/2002, excluding the areas in article 2(3) of Decreto-Lei no. 280/94. The answer to “is my plot inside?” comes from the mapping, not from the text. That is the first thing to confirm before counting any deadline.
Since 19 August there is an official list of municipalities, though it sits in a different instrument. Table 1 of annex i to Portaria no. 350-A/2026/1 identifies the territorial units covered, a combined total of roughly 45,043 ha: Benavente (16,071 ha), Vila Franca de Xira (13,131 ha), Alcochete (6,951 ha), Moita (393 ha), Loures (172 ha), Montijo (100 ha), Lisboa (22 ha) and Palmela (7 ha). Those figures show why the list does not replace the mapping: in Lisboa and Palmela the covered area is residual. The boundaries sit in the ICNF geocatalogue, which the portaria itself points to.
The rest of the decree
- Article 6: actions, projects and plans not directly connected with the management of the SAC and SPA and not necessary for that management, but likely to affect those areas significantly, are subject to an environmental incidence assessment under article 10 of Decreto-Lei no. 140/99. Where an EIA or strategic environmental assessment already applies, that procedure carries it out.
- Article 13: the management plan for the SAC and SPA is to be approved by portaria. It came out on 19 August 2026, as Portaria no. 350-A/2026/1 (DR no. 160/2026, Supplement, Series I).
- Article 14: the transitional regime in article 7-A of Decreto-Lei no. 140/99 no longer applies to the SAC.
- Article 15: revokes Decreto-Lei no. 140/2002 and several articles of Decreto-Lei no. 280/94.
The management plan is out
Portaria no. 350-A/2026/1, of 19 August (DR no. 160/2026, Supplement, Series I) approved the management plan for the Tagus Estuary SAC and SPA. It entered into force on 20 August 2026, the day after publication, under article 4 of the portaria, and it revokes Portaria no. 670-A/99 (2nd series), which had approved the earlier SPA management plan.
For anyone designing or licensing, there is no new requirement here. Under article 2(1), what the plan does is identify habitats and species and adopt complementary conservation measures and actions. The regulatory conservation measures remain those of Decreto-Lei no. 154/2026, and the portaria says so itself: article 2(2) requires the plan to be applied “jointly and simultaneously” with that decree-law, “which set the specific objectives for its conservation and established the regulatory conservation measures needed to meet those objectives”. The favourable ICNF opinion for building on rural land still comes from article 4 of Decreto-Lei no. 154/2026.
In short:
- Decreto-Lei no. 154/2026, DR no. 147/2026, Series I, of 31 July 2026.
- In force since 1 August 2026, under article 16.
- Building on rural land in the Tagus Estuary SAC and SPA requires a favourable ICNF opinion until the plans are revised.
- Opinion within 30 working days, suspended during an EIA procedure.
- Extension limits: 200 m2 residential, 500 m2 tourism; no opinion needed up to 50 % or 100 m2.
- Management plan approved by Portaria no. 350-A/2026/1, of 19 August, in force since 20 August 2026.
- Municipalities covered, per table 1 of annex i to the portaria: Benavente, Vila Franca de Xira, Alcochete, Moita, Loures, Montijo, Lisboa and Palmela.
Do you have land or a project in the estuary area and want to know which regime applies? Talk to us: geral@certiamb.com · +351 910 441 470.