A Letter of Commitment on the «need to protect and enhance the sea, as an invaluable resource» will be drawn up by the Association of Municipalities Terras do Infante and the University of Algarve, and may also be open to «other actors».
The announcement was made by Maria Joaquina Matos, president of the Board of Directors of that Association of Municipalities and of the City Council of Lagos, on Saturday, during the closing of the XNUMXst Congress of Terras do Infante.
The mayor stressed that "the need to protect and enhance our sea, as an invaluable resource" was "reinforced from this Congress."
«The development of multiple activities linked to our sea and its coastal areas contains, in itself, a unique opportunity and a great challenge for this sub-region, for the Algarve and for the national whole», on the one hand, «because makes it challenging, but at the same time imperative, to create and generate direct and indirect employability in associated offshore activities, whether fishing, transformation, leisure sports, among others», added the president Maria Joaquina Matos.
On the other, “because the Sea and its Oceans face serious and increasingly worrying problems related to global, climatic and anthropogenic changes, such as ocean acidification, plasticization, deoxygenation, chemical pollution, overexploitation of resources, loss of biodiversity as a consequence of habitat degradation, among others'.
In addition, he underlined, "it is commonly accepted by all that the development of the Economy of the Sea requires a sustainable, fair, equitable development of the multiple maritime industries, as well as the importance of investing in new technologies."
But also «training, teaching, sports related to the sea have to converge, meeting and eradicating conflicts of use through the implementation of a correct spatial and temporal planning and ordering of its multiple actions».
To achieve all these goals, the project of creating a Letter of Commitment arises, which will be based on activities such as the «promotion of Environmental Education and Citizen Science, stimulating joint actions that contribute to the reduction of threats and the healthy functioning of the World ocean».
But it will also involve the «promotion of sports and tourist activities related to the Sea», «various studies related to the sea, «dissemination to schools, the sea, the oceans in their multiple aspects: scientific, economic, social, cultural , history, among others».
«Take young people to companies linked to the maritime sector, making them known, raising awareness and disseminating the entire business cycle of these activities, from their genesis to their implementation» will be another of the activities to be included in the Letter of Commitment.
The document will also provide for "support to associations linked to the sector", "study, identify and contribute to a spatial ordering of the various activities, in order to reduce conflicts and constraints", "promote the conservation, knowledge and enhancement of marine biodiversity" .
Valuing the sea "as a unique and differentiating element in the tourist offer", as well as "artisanal fishing" and "fishing and recreational ports" or working on a "better coordination of means and competences that the maritime authority system confers", these are also aspects that will be considered in this Letter of Commitment, announced at the end of a day of intense work and reflection on the issues of the Sea.
In closing, Maria Joaquina Matos launched an invitation, in the form of a "challenge", "for a very concrete action, in the spirit and commitment" referred to, inviting the Minister of the Sea and the Secretary of State for Fisheries, who participated in the posthumous tribute to the Professor Mário Ruivo and at the closing session of the Congress, «for a working day in the Triângulo Vicentino».
The objective, explained the mayor of Lagos, is, «in partnership with the Association of Artisanal Fishing Owners of the Barlavento Algarvio and mayors, to continue the work on this theme, but particularly from the perspective of this professional class».
The action will involve «visiting small ports and fishing ports, listening, talking and reflecting with shipowners, masters and fishermen», «perceiving very particularly, “in loco”, the difficulties, needs, as well as the expectations of this professional class». explained the president of the Association of Municipalities Terras do Infante.
In her intervention, minister Ana Paula Vitorino accepted the challenge and expressed her interest in getting to know the reality of Costa Vicentina more closely.
The XNUMXst Congress of the Association of Municipalities Terras do Infante, which took place throughout the entire day on Saturday at the Centro Cultural de Lagos, also included a tribute to the late Professor Mário Ruivo, in the presence of his widow, Maria Eduarda Gonçalves.
In addition to the inauguration of the exhibition Mar Profundo Português, which will then be open to the public until 29 March in the courtyard of the Cultural Center, the tribute included the premiere of a short video documentary about the legacy of the life and work of professor Mário Ruivo :
The Congress celebrated, on the one hand, the meeting of mayors from the three municipalities of Terras do Infante - Lagos, Aljezur and Vila do Bispo -, the presence of bodies, entities and individuals linked to the theme, but above all knowledge, information, reflection and debate regarding the sea and the oceans, as a factor of differentiation, innovation and knowledge in the sustainable way of its exploration, in the resolution of conflicts of use, in new activities and creation of attractive mechanisms for investment, among multiple aspects.
The first panel, on the Economy of the Sea, reviewed one hundred years of the canning industry in Lagos, the prospects that open up with the opening, in this city, of one of the largest freezing units for fishery products in Europe, the economic and tourist impact of recreational boating, the surf economy and the sea as a differentiating factor in tourism in the region.
In the second panel, communications related to the conservation of marine biodiversity in Costa Vicentina were presented, on the plastic sea and pollution, and also on water quality.
A Congress that started in the best way, with Napoleão Mira and Rafael Correia (aka Sickonce Gijoe) giving voice and music to Sophia de Mello-Breyner Andersen's words about Lagos and the Algarve, ended equally well, with the interpretation of «Canção do Mar», by the fado singer Ana Marques, accompanied by a flutist.
Photos: Carlos Afonso and Francisco Castelo | Lagos City Council
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