It was supposed to be a dialogue, but it turned out to be a monologue. Elidérico Viegas, president of AHETA, was on the first day of the Jornadas do Arade, to debate the tourist tax with Jorge Botelho, president of AMAL – Comunidade Intermunicipal do Algarve, but ended up talking to himself.
This should have been the “Controversy 1” of the program of this event, organized by the association Teia d'Impulsos, between the 8th and 10th, in Portimão, but it turned out to be just an exhibition of the reasons that lead the Association of Hotels and Algarve Tourist Resorts rejecting the tourist tax, as he had already done in a public position. Jorge Botelho neither appeared nor was represented.
And, if the organization's objective was to generate controversy, the absence of an interlocutor meant that only voices were heard against this fee, both by Elidérico Viegas, and by members of the assistance who asked to speak, such as Sul Informação witnessed.
The same did not happen in the other Controversies launched by the organization. On Saturday morning, Paulo Morgado, president of the Algarve Regional Health Administration, and Ulisses Brito, president of the Regional Council of the Sub-region of Faro of the Medical Association, debated the future of the National Health Service in the region.
«The need to build a Central Hospital in the Algarve, which responds to the needs of the region (the one that, throughout the country, is geographically furthest away from a central hospital) and to the problems of overcrowding with the Hospital of Faro currently faced, was a point of agreement of both speakers», according to Teia d'Impulsos.
On the same day, in the afternoon, a debate was launched on another hot topic, that of forest management. "What has changed or will change after the August 2018 fire?" was the question put to Rui André, mayor of Monchique, and Assis Marques, from the Barlavento Algarvio Forest Producers Association.
“Prevention and forest reorganization have gathered consensus as measures that can help prevent what happened last year or, at least, lessen its consequences. Rui André stressed that the sustainability of the population and its relationship with the mountain and its products cannot be forgotten. However, Assis Marques warned that the risk of fire, growing due to climate change, is driving investors away from the forest, which contributes to the degradation of land use planning», recalls the association that organizes the Jornadas do Arade, in the summary of the works.
Controversies (or lack of them) aside, this was another weekend in which «the four municipalities of the Arade Basin were once again a reason for reflection and inspiration for new ideas», stresses Teia d'Impulsos.
The association invited several personalities to make «a diagnosis of the main challenges facing the municipalities of Portimão, Lagoa, Silves and Monchique in the present and to envision solutions for a more sustainable future and based on an overall vision for this sub-region of the Algarve ».
It was for this purpose that four working groups were created, made up of students from the professional course of Environmental and Rural Tourism at the IEFP, from the Escola Secundária Poeta António Aleixo de Portimão and the Escola EB 2,3 de Monchique.
These groups focused on four thematic axes – better education and training; value and promote the human and natural heritage; more employment and economic development; and promotion of sport and physical activity – and presented their conclusions on Saturday, the 9th.
And, taking into account that, this year, Portimão, which hosted the conferences, is the European City of Sport, sporting activities had a strong presence at the event.
In addition to a Sunday dedicated to the Traditional Games of Arade Olympics, sport was in focus at the first round table of the Jornadas do Arade 2019, where the “Promotion of sports practice at a local level – From training to high performance” was debated.
On Saturday, Isilda Gomes, mayor of Portimão, had the opportunity to speak about the actions developed and programmed within the scope of the European City of Sport. The mayor "focused on how this is an opportunity not only to promote sports and healthy living habits in the community, but also to boost the region's economy, especially in the tourism sector."
During this edition of the Conference, we also learned a little more about how European funds have been applied in the region. António Ramos, technical secretary of the Algarve 21 Operational Program, presented an intermediate assessment, at a time when the results of the first phase of the application of the CRESC Algarve 2020 program are starting to be verified, and lifted the veil a little about what the key areas will be the next operational programme, namely innovation and stimulus to exports.
As had already happened in other editions, the days made a point of addressing the theme of local heritage, through round tables where they spoke about the way in which it has been promoted and promoted in the municipalities of the Arade Basin.
Ana Patrícia Ramos and António Pereira exhibited some of the activities that the Museum of Portimão has been developing with the community, to keep this memory alive, as a constituent part of the local identity.
Ismael Medeiros, senior technician at the Municipality of Lagoa, revealed some of the municipality's future projects in the heritage sphere, with particular emphasis on the constitution of a long-awaited museological unit in Lagoa.
Archaeologist Cristóvão Fonseca revealed some of the secrets submerged in the Arade estuary that have been explored in underwater archeology projects promoted by CHAM – Center for Humanities of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, in partnership with the Municipal Museum of Portimão.
"There was also an alert for the conflict, which sometimes prevails, between heritage preservation and economic interests, in this specific case, the risks that dredging for the execution of the project to deepen and widen the Arade channel may pose to the heritage underwater”, stresses the organization of the initiative.
Culture was not forgotten, namely the intercity projects that exist in this area. In addition to the Petisco Route, an initiative promoted by Teia d'Impulsos, the focus was on “365Algarve” and the different initiatives promoted by the In Loco association, such as MEDFest, the Mediterranean Diet Route or the Prato Certo project.
«The Jornadas do Arade thus once again provided a unique space for debate and exchange of ideas for the population of the Arade Basin», concludes Teia d'Impulsos.
Photos: Web of Impulses
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