It is seen as a "first step" in consolidating the aspiring project. UNESCO World Geopark. The Municipality of Loulé will receive 50 thousand euros from the Environmental Fund to create a website, a promotional video, a traveling exhibition and signage for the geosites already identified.
Basically, this application, which was approved by the Ministry of Environment and Energy Transition, under the Environmental Fund, aims create communication, exhibition and visitation tools for the geological and cultural heritage of the territory aspiring to UNESCO World Geopark, which also encompasses the municipalities of Silves and Albufeira.
In an interview with Sul Informação, Dália Paulo, municipal director of Loulé, said that the «Environmental Fund allows us to take the first step. One thing is certain: this is work that will not be lost and the Geopark concept is what we want for the development of that territory, based on sustainability and endogenous resources».
By December of this year, four specific objectives will then have to be developed: the creation of a website for the aspiring UNESCO World Geopark project, the launch of a promotional video, the holding of a traveling exhibition through the territory and the creation of a signage.
According to Dália Paulo, one of the biggest challenges is the work that has to be done “with the populations”.
“This is a job for and with the people who live there. Only then will it make sense. This traveling exhibition serves to make known what we want to do in the Geopark. We have already started to do something here with Salir, but right now, with the exhibition, we want more», considered the municipal director.
Directional signage will also be created for geosites “that are already identified”. “Right now we have 27, but we are in the process of locating more. There is a whole scientific project to be developed by Professor Cristina Veiga-Pires», explained Dália Paulo.
This idea of creating a UNESCO World Geopark came up by Vítor Aleixo, president of the Loulé Council, after a great discovery: the Metoposaurus algarvensis, an amphibian whose fossils were found in the Penina geosite.
It is from there that the entire project will develop, also involving Silves and Albufeira. "Our president Vítor Aleixo thought that we would gain density if we joined our territories," stated Dália Paulo.
In São Bartolomeu de Messines, for example, traces of a placodon, an animal that is part of aquatic reptiles and that resembles a turtle, have already been found.
“In the south of the country, there is no Geopark and, also for that reason, it is a large-scale project that encompasses the integral development of the territory. We speak from activities related to agriculture, to the creation of itineraries and routes, micro-enterprises and catering spaces», he explained.
This is, in effect, the concept of a Geopark: an area that includes geological heritage, but to which a sustainable development strategy is associated.
The candidacy, revealed Dália Paulo in an interview with Sul Informação, "it will never be ready before 2021", although this is already a "two-year-old" job.
It is certain that this is a project that wants to “invert” the traditional “desertification” of the interior.
«It will create added value, from a tourist point of view, because we are going to value geosites so that they can be visited. This also encompasses cultural heritage, archaeology, archaeological sites and the enhancement of gastronomy», concluded the municipal director of Loulé.
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