At the start of the summer, the three SHERPA Multi-Actor Platforms from Portugal hosted their first meetings. These meetings launched the discussions on the topics and issues that the platforms will cover for the remaining year.
Alqueva is a region that has seen a huge change in its productive structure, with the installation of recent projects with scale and profitability, due to public investment in irrigation. The region is subject to increasing pressure from desertification, with a challenging land-use planning in the context of climate change. In this context, MAP Alqueva met face-to-face with its members to start discussions on “Climate change and land use”.
The Portuguese Central region is an excellent example of the need for innovative, multidisciplinary, and multidimensional approaches. In this period, the Portuguese MAP Centro will focus on a specific district of the Centro region of Portugal, Fundão. Over the past few years, Fundão has been investing in a strategy to attract investment, create jobs and foster innovation with the aim of promoting the diversification of the local economy and a socio-economic development adapted to the dynamics of the current economy marked by globalisation and digitalisation. Thus, the discussions of the first online meeting of the MAP focused on the topic of “Digitalisation in rural areas”.
The region of Southwest Alentejo is marked by agricultural activities focusing on the production of vegetables and berries, with a strong foreign investment and with a high need of labour. This labour has been mainly supplied by immigrants from Asian countries, which has created a set of new challenges for the region. The MAP Southwest Alentejo (SW) will provide a space for stakeholders to engage, deepen the discussion on the main social issues and find ways forward in a comprehensive manner. The first meeting, organised online, kick-started discussions on the “Social dimension of rural areas”.
All three MAPs are coordinated by CONSULAI.