The Action Plan for Integrated Territorial Investment Water and Landscape Ecosystem, which unites the Algarve and Alentejo to resolve these issues, should be in place at the beginning of next year.
The perspective was put forward this Monday, June 26th, at the action plan presentation session, which brought together the Commissions for Coordination and Regional Development (CCDR) of the Algarve and Alentejo, mayors of some municipalities in the two regions, representatives of local development organizations, among other people interested in the subject, at the Manuel Viegas Guerreiro Foundation, in Querença.
«This is a structural project, which involves the two CCDRs, which involves the Municipalities and parishes, both in Baixo Alentejo and in the Algarve, and which focuses on improving water lines and improving natural capacity. In essence, resuming the green cord that was promoted 20 years ago, now mobilizing the different players in the territory with proposals that are eligible within the scope of this integrated water and landscape initiative», explained José Apolinário, president of CCDR Algarve, to Sul Informação.
The project developed so far brings together proposals from 123 entities (63% from the public sector, 25% from the associative sector and 12% from academia and associative R&D centers) and 17 municipalities (12 from the Algarve and 5 from Alentejo). The investment intention is currently 77,7 million euros for projects covering thematic areas such as: enhancement of the natural and ecological heritage; recovery and protection of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and weed control; empowerment of actors, community and schools and production of knowledge; creation of knowledge and added value in matters of drought, water resources, restoration and ecological preservation of the landscape; retention and cleaning of existing water lines in the territory and adaptation to climate change and improvement of thermal comfort.
For timings, Tiago Teotónio Pereira , Member of Alentejo 2030, reveals that the action plan should be drawn up in July – «so that the management authorities, in an integrated manner, open the notice so that this Action Plan can be submitted» – and in the In August the evaluation will take place so that it is possible to approve this investment.
«What we want here is to build a pact and a letter of commitment between all the entities in the territory, because for us to look at the issue of climate change in the region we have to look at the decentralization part, the reduction of water losses, but we also have to look at strengthening resilience, the water recharge and retention areas in the Barrocal and inland Algarve», continues the president of CCDR Algarve, reinforcing that the idea is to understand what can be financed within the scope of Portugal 2030 and others to make partnerships with the environmental fund, agriculture, PRR, among others.
According to José Apolinário, «we are in the middle of the process» of Integrated Territorial Investment Water and Landscape Ecosystem.
«We already have the participation meetings – of which we make a very positive assessment given the high participation – the proposals, and now we have to make their hierarchy to later define the governance model», he explains.
Regarding the interest of entities and civil society regarding problems related to water and the landscape ecosystem, the president of CCDR Algarve reinforces that there is "increasing interest".
The participatory process, which took place in May and June, resulted in seven decentralized sessions in the territory for the presentation and collection of contributions, totaling 350 people. This process resulted in the effective participation of 123 entities from both regions, representing the public and private, associative and academic sectors.
Comments