The programme to revitalise Portugal’s Serra da Estrela Natural Park, with an allocation of €155 million, recommends measures to create dynamics to attract and retain residents in the region affected by the fires in the summer of 2022.
The document, approved by the Council of Ministers on February, was only published last week in State gazette Duiário da República – a year and a half after the region’s mayors asked the government for support in the face of devastating fire damage.
The planned measures cover the 15 municipalities of the Intermunicipal Community of Beiras and Serra da Estrela (CIMBSE), based in Guarda – the entity responsible for implementing the programme over the next four years.
CIMBSE president and mayor of Gouveia, Luís Tadeu, has said: “It’s a very challenging programme and now the region must pull out all the stops to implement it, because there won’t be another plan with the resources and tight timings of this one any time soon”.
