The definition of this park is a bit confusing.

I tried looking at their website, but it’s just a tourism advertisement. So I’m going to say what it looks like from the point of view from a non Portuguese speaking person who lives within it, as readers of this page are likely to be thinking of becoming.

We Estrangeros [foreigners] think of a natural park as a wilderness area owned partially or wholly by the state.

This is nothing like that; most [maybe all] of the land area of the Natural park costa Vincentina is held by private landowners.

Property deeds of coastal properties go right to the high tide line, so even the coastal strip is privately owned. In reality, the landowners have no control at all over the strip at the coast, so the ownership is essentially theoretical.

The vast area was declared a natural park in order to halt development of the area, and that’s pretty much what it does.

Within the boundaries of this park, there are entire towns, thousands of farms, and tens of thousands of homes.

The park authority puts in a few benches here and there, but for the most part services and administration falls to the local governments [Camara, or county, and freguesia, or town].

But; and this is a big but, the park authority has right of refusal for any new building or development within its area. Much to the annoyance of the local Camaras [councils, counties], who find they can’t increase their economic base.

The struggle between the authorities has been going on for years, and recent court decisions have basically come down on the side of the park.

On the plus side, when you buy a property in the park, you know there will be no big constructions going up in your line of sight, no shopping centers, factories, housing blocks, race tracks, airports...

On the negative side, you can’t build anything either.