Five children from the D. Afonso III, EB1/JI da Conceição and Escola Básica Ria Formosa and respective coordinators were received by Rogério Bacalhau, mayor of Faro, as part of the commemorations of the “Day of the Blue School”, on the 19th of May.
On this visit, the students delivered postcards to the mayor of Faro alluding to the theme of preserving this important ecosystem, more precisely the prairies and seahorses (a protected species, which is at risk of extinction).
«About two years ago a reserve was created, which forced the implementation of a series of restrictions, resulting in an increase in the population of this species», explained Rogério Bacalhau, while reading some of the postcards made by more than 250 students, from the Groupings of Schools in the Municipality.
The mayor took the opportunity to dialogue with the children and teachers, trying to understand the objectives of this initiative. The small ambassadors noted their concern regarding the construction of an anchorage in the Ria Formosa.
«We are going to have to create rules for navigation in that space and we are already preparing a Navigation Plan, taking into account that, within the scope of the transfer of competences, the management of some aspects related to the movement of vessels has become our responsibility» , explained the president.
The mayor even reinforced that this concern of the Chamber is a constant and gave as examples the construction of the new bridge to Praia de Faro and a plan for the construction of a walkway (which would go to the location where the Living Science Center operates), works that will only be carried out after careful environmental impact studies and which will have permanent monitoring, to monitor any situation that needs to be corrected.
«Just to give you an idea: in the case of Praia de Faro, we have four companies that deal precisely with monitoring
continuation of this work, so that we do not harm the ecosystem», he concluded.
All the coordinators of this project mentioned the need for balance in the management of the territory, agreeing that it is in this game of weighting and care that progress will be made towards the effective preservation of natural resources and global development.
Over the past week (May 15th to 19th) various recreational and didactic activities were held on the subject of seagrasslands/seahorses and the defense of the oceans, such as painting, creating posters, presenting songs, creating postcards , webinars (namely, about what is involved in the process of seahorse conservation) and the viewing of films (in this case, a film by João Vieira Rodrigues, produced by Chimera Visuals, which warns of the decline of the horse community -marines of Ria Formosa).
The municipality of Faro, a partner of the schools community in all initiatives, recalls that the “Escola Azul” project was developed by the Ministry of the Sea and its Directorate-General for Sea Policy, with the aim of promoting Ocean Literacy in school communities, fostering, in the younger generations, a sense of citizenship, which makes them more responsible and participatory, actively contributing to the sustainability of the Oceans.
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