Portugal

Portugal has 15 FLAGs, 12 of them in coastal areas of continental Portugal and three on the Azores archipelago, situated in the Atlantic Ocean. The main challenges that CLLD addresses are low educational level of fishermen; decreased attractiveness of fisheries for young people; declining competitiveness of the fishing industry; and conflicting demands in the coastal areas.

The Sotavento do Algarve FLAG supported investment to enable Culatra Island, Portugal’s most important location for aquaculture production, to transition to solar energy.

The Mondego Mar FLAG financed a project to bring some unused saltpans back into use to produce an aquaculture product which is highly coveted by restaurateurs: the sea urchin, also known as ‘Portuguese caviar’.

El GALP Oeste colaboró con la ONG portuguesa SPEA en el marco del proyecto MedAves Pesca, con el fin de facilitar una mejor comunicación e interacción con el sector pesquero. El objetivo de dicho proyecto conjunto fue adaptar las prácticas pesqueras para evitar la muerte de aves marinas durante las faenas de pesca en la zona de las Ilhas Berlengas.

La pandemia de la COVID-19 ha suscitado un renovado interés por las ventas en línea, lo que ha contribuido a su vez a dar un nuevo impulso a proyectos como Cabaz do Peixe, una plataforma virtual —a través de la cual la flota pesquera artesanal local vende pescado al público general— que suministra productos frescos y de calidad al consumidor, con todas las garantías de seguridad.

Thanks to business advice from Oeste FLAG and national financial support, a fisheries observer who wanted to change his career path has successfully started his own company in Portugal, working with marine plants called halophytes.

Pillio FLAG is looking for partners from Cyprus, Italy, Malta, Spain, Portugal and France to create a transnational organisation (AKTES). The purpose of the organisation is the development and implementation a transnational quality agreement (pact) joining tourism stakeholders under a common strategy. The strategy aims to guarantee a minimum quality for products and services; improving the tourist offer of those areas; mitigating seasonality; and encouraging better incomes and working conditions for local communities in coastal areas.

Cooperation in Portugal is considered a useful tool to allow the FLAGs to bring together the knowledge and capacity of actors with different levels of experience, including those from rural and urban areas. As such, support for cooperation will focus on fostering exchange between different organisations, with the aim of resolving common problems and putting into practice ideas that produce benefits that go beyond a single FLAG area.

“Salina Greens” is a Portuguese business dedicated to the organic production and processing of Salicornia, a native plant species growing on salt marshes. This production system helps preserve areas of high environmental value, while supporting the local economy.

The FLAG territory includes 52 coastal villages across five islands in the Western group of the Azores archipelago. The Azores is located on the Atlantic Ridge. Its relief is very rugged. The lines of relief run in an east-west direction, matching the fracture lines to which the islands owe their formation.