Strategic Plan for the Upgrading and Enhancement Operation of Ria Formosa

The Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning and Regional Development has created through a Ministerial order of August 2 a Working Group charged of elaborating a Strategic Plan proposal for the Upgrading and Enhancement Operation of Ria Formosa. The composition of the working group was the following one:  (a) POLIS XXI Programme coordinator; (b) Ria Formosa Natural Park Director; (c) The Regional and Coordination Commission of Algarve; (iv) ParkExpo 98. The structure and contents of the Strategic Plan has been also defined by that order: (i) Delimitation and characterization of the intervention area; (ii) Preliminary identification of the interventions to be implemented; (iii) Estimation of the investment amount of the operation and formulation of proposal of funding alternatives, mainly involving the access to the National Strategic Reference Framework and national funding; (iv) Design and proposal of institutional model to be developed for implementing the Plan and of juridic framework needed to achieve the operation;  (v) Physical and financial planning of the actions previously identified. Quaternaire Portugal has been invited to participate in the characterization of the intervention area covering the environmental and landscape issues and in the design of development proposals in these fields.  WE have also participated in the formulation of the vision and of the strategic objectives, as well as in the design  of integrated interventions in the coastal area, using a multi-criteria approach. .