It's April 2024. In 2017 (January 5), 2020 (January 9) e 2021 (January 21) I wrote on Sul Informação articles about the Northeast Algarve and Baixo Guadiana.
Like the vicious circle, I continue to return to the topic and I recall what I said in 2017: Twenty years have passed, the income compensation granted under the Community regulation 2080 of the Common Agricultural Policy on agroforestry measures is ending.
Do we today, in the Northeast Algarve and Baixo Guadiana, have an agroforestry economy worthy of the name? Do we today have multifunctionality and pluriactivity worthy of the name? Have we stopped the vicious circle of desertification and depopulation? Have we at least touristified the remote interior and Baixo Guadiana? In terms of cross-border cooperation, have we made progress worthy of the name? Do we already have the Guadiana's navigability assured up to Alcoutim? Unfortunately, we only implemented a mitigation policy and cannot say that we reversed the long trend in the northeast of the Algarve between Alcoutim and Vila Real de Santo António.
Today, in 2024, 50 years after April 25th, in a so-called rich region, we have, in this sub-region, on the one hand, a long cycle of desertification and depopulation and, on the other, short cycles of emergency, mitigation and adaptation, whose meager results are not enough to reverse the severe restrictions of that long cycle. We are truly at an impasse.
Once again, everyone is waiting for the implementation of PT 2030 and POCPT 2027, and now also the PRR. Meanwhile, the Northeast Algarve and Baixo Guadiana have a decreasing population, an increasingly elderly population, poorer soils, very low water resources and a high risk of forest fires, in addition to non-existent political representation.
Furthermore, the sub-region is an indirect victim of the Algarve's model of intensive tourist mono-industry, of severe conditions in relation to the opportunity cost of investments, of the low existing network and agglomeration economies and of an administration of the territory that is manifestly out of tune with nature. of your problems.
Despite the difficulties highlighted, we are now experiencing an extraordinary decade in terms of the complex of programs and policy measures, as well as the financial resources involved. The Great Transitions of this decade – climate, energy, ecological, food, demographic, migration, digital, security
– due to the impacts they provide, they raise several fundamental questions, for example:
– The complex of programs and policy measures of the PRR, PT 2030, POCTEP and other European programs, could trigger a paradigmatic change in this sub-region and, thus, reverse the vicious circle into a virtuous circle of territorial development or, on the contrary, we will regret, once again, having missed this final opportunity?
– Or will it be necessary for a serious water resources crisis to jeopardize, at the same time, public supply, tourism and agriculture in the Algarve?
– Or are we going to wait for a serious cross-border conflict motivated by water wars and transfers between Iberian rivers?
The Northeast Algarve and Baixo Guadiana will never get out of their vicious circle of development if they are not able to apply a critical mass of measures, on an appropriate scale and for at least a decade and do not have a dedicated administration, a mission structure, that has contractual autonomy to carry out all these measures on the ground.
This means an integrated and comprehensive approach to territorial development, at three interconnected scales of intervention, the municipality of Alcoutim, the Guadiana natural park and Baixo Guadiana and the eastern Algarve.
This complex of measures includes prevention measures (1), urgency (2), mitigation and adaptation (3), intelligent specialization (4), socio-structural reform (5), in accordance with the programmatic bases included in the development contract and which can be summarized as follows:
– Base nº 1, the lost seeds: it is about taking care of biodiversity, soils (soil bank), vegetation cover, ecosystem services, local agri-food system (SAL) and agriculture accompanied by the community (AAC);
– Base nº2, the new energy matrix: the definition of the renewable energy matrix – solar, wind, biomass – the creation of a biomass plant, the formation of local energy communities, the energy efficiency of homes;
– Base nº3, the water resources matrix: the planning of the Guadiana River hydrographic basin and the water resources distribution network up to the Lower Guadiana, the navigability of the river and the river ecological corridor; definition of the water resources matrix of the eastern Algarve and the integrated management of sea resources, aquifers, surface and recycled waters.
– Base nº4, the multifunctional forest and the agro-silvo-pastoral mosaic: the definition of the mosaic and agroecological practices, the remuneration of ecosystem services with special emphasis on soil reconstitution, preventive forestry and forest fire management, the function and role of agrocinetics;
– Base nº5, smooth mobility and active aging: the creation of proximity outpatient services, the priority of a continued care program, the formation of co-housing communities for the senior population, a program of activities for active aging , the formation of a volunteer bank;
– Base nº6, microcredit and participatory financing: a support program for the entire population in need in the lee region aiming to provide a type of guaranteed minimum income that can be assured through participatory financing operations;
– Base nº 7, circular economy services: recovery and treatment program for domestic, agricultural, forestry and industrial waste that can be used as a source of income for the municipality’s population and whose reuse solutions can be exemplary;
– Base nº 8, complex of educational, pedagogical, recreational and therapeutic services: educational farms, special education, volunteer work residencies, artistic and research residencies, accommodation for digital nomads;
– Base nº9, historical-heritage and tourist-cultural services: reinventing the distinctive territorial signs of the lee, recreating new itineraries in the region and visiting circuits, as well as two or three important events; agritourism and socio-environmental entertainment services, a special accessible tourism network and a local accommodation bank can provide additional income;
– Base nº 10, cross-border cooperation: on a specifically cross-border level, the Eastern Algarve mission structure dialogues directly with the AAA Euro-region and the Baixo Guadiana Euro-city.
Here are some measures that may be relevant to carrying out the Eastern Algarve program: a cooperation program between parks and natural reserves and other protected landscape areas, a AAA business extension network with a grant for professional internships, an inter-university postgraduate platform -AAA degree with joint degree, a BG card for mobility, that is, a green path for young people and seniors, an AAA green path for the mobility of high-risk patients, an AAA pilot program to combat climate change.
Final Notes
In addition to the complex of measures already mentioned, some emblematic projects or initiatives can be mentioned that could constitute brand images of the eastern Algarve. The first example concerns the international training and high-performance center, the second example concerns some internationally prestigious events, from canoeing to rowing and from triathlon to athletics.
Another example concerns the Baixo Guadiana intermunicipal agroecological park and its vegetable and garden program which, together, would be the fundamental instruments of visitation, recreation, leisure and therapy for the most fragile members of senior society.
The last emblematic project concerns the Iberian arts and culture center as an instrument of communication and cooperation with Mediterranean and African countries.
Having arrived here, over the next twenty years the great agro-rural constellation – agri-food, agro-environmental, agro-forestry, agro-energy, agro-tourism, agro-cultural – of this sub-region of the eastern Algarve will continue to make perfect sense, for the most part due to the worsening of the impacts of changes climate.
However, to lower its opportunity cost it will need to be reframed in an integrated development model for the eastern Algarve, a model that coordinates the six vectors of the constellation and that, for this purpose, constitutes an actor-network, a mission structure , with the specific task of administering a program integrated within the framework of current structural programs and also cross-border cooperation within the scope of the AAA Euroregion.
Comments