The city council of Famalicão saw approved the application to the Environmental Fund of the project "Somos Paisagem: Educação e Participação nas Pateiras do Ave" (“We are Landscape: Education and Participation in the Pateiras do Ave”), which aims to implement a set of actions that articulate and complement with the process of creating a Local Protected Landscape (PPL), in the parishes of Fradelos, Ribeirão and Vilarinho das Cambas.
The project's budget is close to 70,000 euros, with co-financing of around 50,000 euros. The city council of Famalicão takes over the rest of the investment.
Among the main actions of the application are the training and participation of the community for the valorisation of the Pateiras do Ave, through actions of mobilization of citizens and public and private entities; the promotion of environmental education for all with multiple activities and initiatives of awareness and finally, the realization of the Pio-Pardo Nature Observation Festival, whose first edition took place this year, at the beginning of September.
The application is part of the National Strategy for Environmental Education 2020, with the action "Valuing the territory", also contributing to the objective of sustainable development 15 "Protecting Life on Earth" established by the United Nations General Assembly.
For the Mayor of Famalicão, Paulo Cunha, "this project is a response to the need to value the territory, based on principles that encourage the creation of a civic culture and active citizenship that mobilizes society for sustainable development".
In this sense, the project aims to position itself as a tool for valuing the local territory, based on the valorisation of its natural heritage as a strategic captive and on the services that both provide to the community, having already carried out a survey of the natural and cultural values to preserve, where the existing biodiversity and heritage were studied and a strategy for their valorisation was worked on.
The work carried out thus makes it possible to carry out a diagnosis of the current situation, identifying a territorial area with a biodiversity and landscape of undeniable values that must be protected and valued. This is a territory made up of a mosaic of forest and agricultural fields, centred on the parish of Fradelos, its traditional architecture, its traditions, but above all, its biodiversity, its habitats and its ecosystems that persist on the banks of the River Ave. The area of intervention of the project corresponds to the territory of the 3 parishes involved, and represents 3,539 hectares, of which 1,500ha corresponds to the area of the PPL.