Beach Horseback Tours Are Eroding Alentejo’s Protective Dunes
Galloping across the wide, golden strand between Tróia and Sines has become a fashionable way to experience the Alentejo coast, yet conservationists warn the trend is quietly undermining the very landscape riders come to admire. While litter campaigns are finally paying off, horse-hooves are now the main worry for scientists, rangers and local residents who depend on a healthy shoreline for tourism and protection against storms.
Why the Alentejo dunes matter to all of us
The sweeping dune belts that frame the Setúbal peninsula and the lower Alentejo are more than postcard scenery. Built grain by grain over centuries, they form a natural wall that holds back Atlantic storm surges, filter groundwater and provide nesting space for Kentish plovers, little terns and other protected birds. Their scrub and ammófila grasses trap sand, and the roots act like biological rebar. When that network is crushed or uprooted, the wind sculpts blow-outs that can march inland, threatening farmland, roads and holiday homes. With climate models projecting stronger winter swells and a sea-level rise of roughly 30 cm by 2050, keeping those dunes intact is no longer a niche green concern; it is coastal civil protection.
Hooves on shifting sand: what’s happening on the ground
Environmental NGO Brigada do Mar, well-known for its big annual beach clean-ups, says the number of organised rides has grown sharply since the pandemic staycation boom. Guides often take visitors off the wet sand and onto the crest to avoid incoming tides, leaving deep prints that cut through root mats, compact the soil and speed up wind erosion. Rangers have documented tracks through bird-nesting zones during the spring breeding season, and drone footage shows vegetation scars widening each summer. Even when the horses return to stables, their impact lingers: rainwater funnels into the depressions, widening them, and native plants such as Euphorbia paralias struggle to recolonise. The NGO notes that waste found on these beaches has dropped by almost 40 % in the past five years, proof that public behaviour can shift—yet horseback excursions now pose the "single fastest-growing pressure" on the 60 km stretch.
The legal maze: protected status vs. leisure industry
Most of the affected area sits inside the Reserva Natural do Estuário do Sado and overlaps with the marine buffer of the Parque Natural da Arrábida. Under Portuguese and EU law, any activity that disturbs habitats listed in the Habitats Directive requires prior authorisation from the ICNF. Practically, that means tours should stay on marked tracks and secure permits, but monitoring is thin: two full-time wardens patrol a coastline the length of a Lisbon–Évora drive. GNR nature officers can fine riders, yet operators complain that the rules are "confusing and change with each inspector". Tourism businesses argue that riding keeps visitors in the region during the shoulder season and brings cash to rural stables. Conservationists counter that one storm can erase those economic gains if dunes lose their buffer function and beaches shrink, forcing costly sand replenishment works like those already planned for Costa da Caparica.
Lessons from abroad: how others ride responsibly
Portugal is far from alone in juggling saddles and sand. On Lithuania’s UNESCO-listed Curonian Spit, riders must pre-book slots and follow geo-fenced GPS trails. In Denmark’s Thy National Park, guides carry portable manure bags and limit group size to six animals to cut soil compaction. Projects funded by the EU LIFE programme have shown that clear signage, mandatory briefings and seasonal closures can maintain visitor satisfaction while protecting fragile fore-dunes. These examples suggest that with well-marked loops, strict group limits and real-time monitoring, the Alentejo coast could host low-impact tours and still meet its conservation targets.
What can be done now — and what you can do
Brigada do Mar is urging municipalities to map dedicated equestian corridors on the flatter back-dune and to install QR-code posts that explain why certain ridges are off-limits during nesting season. The group also calls for a pilot project to test ground-reinforcement mesh similar to that used on Brittany’s coastal bridle paths. For residents and holiday-makers, the advice is straightforward: book only with tour companies that display an ICNF licence, refuse rides that cross vegetated dunes and report off-trail activity through the SOS Ambiente hotline (808 200 520). The Alentejo’s dunes took millennia to form; with a little collective restraint, they can still shield the coast for millennia more.