Mação officials seek solutions for wild boar presence in villages

The municipality of Mação, located in the Santarém district of Portugal, is seeking solutions to address the increasing presence of wild boars in local villages. The animals have been causing damage to municipal heritage, destroying small crops, and causing road accidents.

Mayor José Fernando Martins stated that the issue affects nearly all localities within the municipality. To address the situation, the local government has scheduled a meeting for September 11 with the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) and five local hunting associations. The goal of the meeting is to discuss methods for controlling the wild boar population across the entire territory. Martins noted that while the problem is not new, there is a perception that the population is growing annually, potentially linked to the progressive abandonment of agricultural lands.