The Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, again mentioned this Wednesday, September 9, the recovery of the montado in Alentejo during a hearing before the Environment Committee of the Assembly of the Republic. This was the second time the measure was publicly referenced, approximately four months after 12 million euros in EEA Grants funding were announced for nature restoration projects that could cover this ecosystem.
The first reference occurred on May 5, when Maria da Graça Carvalho indicated that the Government intended to support the restoration of the montado within the framework of the National Nature Restoration Plan, associating the intervention with the fight against desertification. Subsequently, the Executive presented the ambition to create in Alentejo a "great national montado forest," with 12 million euros destined for the restoration of habitats in the Special Areas of Conservation.
However, four months after the initial announcement, essential elements remain unknown, such as the exact location, territorial dimension, number of hectares to be recovered, potential owners or participating entities, the value actually reserved for the montado, and the timeline for the start of interventions. In July, the minister herself acknowledged that the entirety of the funds would not necessarily have the montado as a destination, stating she was awaiting a "strong proposal from the Alentejo region."
There are previous experiences of montado recovery in the region, such as the LandUnderPressure project, also funded by the EEA Grants, which developed a 90-hectare pilot experience at Herdade da Coitadinha, in Barrancos. Even so, nearly three months after that statement, a concrete project capable of transforming the funding possibility into a defined intervention in the Alentejo territory remained publicly unidentified.
