On 10 May, in Cascais, project manager Henrique Mira Godinho had the pleasure of taking part in a LIFE Resland event, which organised its first social walk in the morning and a round table debate in the afternoon with various stakeholders from the project coordinated by Cascais Ambiente: Civil Protection, ICNF, landowners and other projects and organisations.
After a few meetings and several invitations, the LIFE Maronesa team was finally able to visit the maronesas that migrated from the Serra do Alvão to the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park. In addition to the walk and round table, our team member took the opportunity to visit the grazing and prescribed fire intervention areas within the Park.
The morning was spent on a pleasant and well-organised walk in the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, where the participants, made up of landowners, volunteers, local authorities and interested citizens, were able to get a closer look at the forestry work carried out during the project’s first year. The tour highlighted the good practices and results already visible in the landscape, as well as the reasons for the choices made and the discussion about the opportunities created for future approaches to the sustainable management of these areas.
After the social lunch, a round table was organised, bringing together representatives from various project partners: Civil Protection, landowners who joined the project, a member of the LIFE Resland team and the LIFE Maronesa project manager. The round table focussed on sharing good results and obstacles from the point of view of each member of the panel, from their experience of working with LIFE Resland, and served as an opportunity for the audience to put questions to the panel and share some experiences and environmental concerns about the future challenges facing the Cascalense community.
At the end of the afternoon, there was time to climb up to Peninha to observe the results of the work of the various wild and domestic herbivores that graze in the park, including the maronesas bred in the Serra do Alvão and the garranos from Alto Minho.
