We united for the Forests!

On 16 January, the Meeting of Organisations from the Centre region of Portugal took place in Coimbra, at the Vasco da Gama University College, under the European project ‘Catalyst of Change: Meeting for the Forests’, funded by the European Commission.

The event was organised in partnership with Reflorestar Portugal and the Citizens’ Assemblies of Portugal. Faixas Vivas helps to define the themes of the meetings and facilitate the discussions.

The meeting was attended by various environmental associations, civic movements, sector representatives and members of the public sector, with a particular focus on the Central region, promoting an open and constructive dialogue on the challenges of spatial planning.

Topics discussed included the growing risk of wildfires, environmental degradation linked to the increasing number of abandoned plots of intensive monoculture and areas left in a post-fire state. We also agreed on the urgent need to promote regenerative, sustainable solutions that are consistent with a vision of the intelligent use of land-use planning tools.

The conclusions of this work will contribute to the creation of a document setting out proposals for adapting current legislation and plans, which will be presented to policy-makers and made available online at the end of the programme.