The Revitalization Plan for the Serra da Estrela Natural Park has around 12% of projects completed or underway, announced today by the Association of Municipalities of the Serra da Estrela Natural Park (AMPNSE).
“About 12% of the Plan is currently executed or in progress. It is still little and no one hides it. But it is, for the first time since the Plan’s approval, a path that is starting to be made,” AMPNSE stated in a press release sent to the Lusa agency.
The Serra da Estrela Natural Park Revitalization Plan (PRPNSE) was created by the Council of Ministers Resolution No. 40/2024, dated March 15.
With an initial allocation of 155 million euros, the program was devised following the forest fires that occurred in the summer of 2022 in Serra da Estrela, which consumed 22 thousand hectares – 50% of the natural park’s area.
According to the AMPNSE’s release, several program contracts relating to projects of the six municipalities covered by the Revitalization Plan were recently signed.
“In total, they represent an investment of around seven million euros, with the State’s share of around three million euros,” it is stated.
In the document, AMPNSE highlighted the “personal commitment and permanent availability” of the Secretary of State for Local Administration and Territorial Planning, Silvério Regalado.
“His concrete knowledge of the files was decisive in unlocking the procedures that today allow construction to proceed on the ground,” the association praised.
The recognition is also extended to the President of the Center for Coordination and Regional Development (CCDRC), Ribau Esteves, whose involvement “has been decisive in the coordination between the Central Administration and the municipalities.”
“These six municipalities know how to distinguish those who work from those who promise. And they make a point of saying so,” AMPNSE stressed.
The Association of Municipalities of the Serra da Estrela Natural Park also recorded, “with appreciation,” the words spoken on Sunday in Guarda by the President of the Republic, António José Seguro, regarding the Serra da Estrela Revitalization Plan.
“By noting that this is a promise that ‘has dragged on for too long’ and by arguing that what is required are concrete steps, these are words that help us and that we appreciate.”
For AMPNSE, the contracts now signed demonstrate that the Plan “is feasible when there is political will and institutional coordination.”
“It is this approach that we ask to be maintained and expanded, so that what today represents about 12% can, in a useful timeframe, represent the whole.”
In the press release, AMPNSE reaffirms “total availability” to continue to work with the Government, the CCDR Centro and the other involved entities, “in the certainty that the Serra da Estrela revitalization is not a claim of six municipalities: it is a national cause.”
“The mapping of the concrete and defined municipal projects, foreseen in the various axes of the Revitalization Plan, has recently been delivered to the authority. It identifies what remains to be done, where to do it and in which axis each intervention falls.”
With that work done, the Association now asks for “a medium-term schedule” for the full realization of the Revitalization Plan, “with the financing axes clearly defined, which would allow executing in the next four years what the initial schedule already contemplated.”
“We do not ask for more money than announced. We do not ask for a new plan. We do not ask for special treatment. We ask that the commitment undertaken has dates and a horizon that the municipalities can plan.”
Created in August 2024, the Association of Municipalities of Serra da Estrela Natural Park is chaired by Sérgio Costa, president of the Guarda City Hall, and includes the municipalities of Celorico da Beira, Gouveia, Guarda, Manteigas and Seia in the Guarda district, and Covilhã in the Castelo Branco district.
Among its responsibilities is the management of the PRPNSE funds.
