Future Planning

Future Planning

What is the aim of this initiative?

The Future Planning initiative is developed, in Portugal, in a partnership between ASPEA (Portuguese Association for Environmental Education), the Municipality of Lousada, and in Norway, with the School for Green Development in Bryne.

The Future Planning project aims to involve educators and local policy makers by promoting debate on good and effective land management, encouraging decision making, thus reducing the gap that is observed between environmental discourse and its translation into practice.

Objectives:

• Sharing experiences and practices regarding the sustainable management of the territory in an environmentally responsible and socially fair manner;
• Strengthen an updated theoretical framework in the light of current knowledge with a view to its translation into consolidated and effective practices, based on shared experiences;
• To foster dialogue between educators and professionals of the environment and territory in their work of training citizens aware of environmental issues with territorial expression.

Activities:

This bilateral initiative will organise two training courses, one in Portugal and one in Norway, empowering participants for environmentally responsible and socially just spatial planning, giving them specialised and eminently practical knowledge, providing useful resources to implement better spatial management policies, prioritising the environment and spatial planning at the local scale.

1st Training event, in Bryne (Norway), November 2021
Its main objective is to present different perspectives of Territorial Sustainability and development with a focus on environmental issues, including a practical and "hands on" component.

2nd Training event, in Lousada (Portugal), in December 2021.
It will include theoretical and practical sessions on the theme addressed by the project, field visits and a Final Conference.

To support this bilateral initiative, a video will be produced for Youtube: Environment Without Filters, where we intend to reach several actors of our society so that they offer their individual contribution, regarding good practices to be applied in the management of the territory.

The project will conclude with a publication - e-book - listing good practice initiatives in local planning and territory management policies, which will be referenced by the entities involved in the project.

It is already registered as a good environmental practice the project of the Lousada Municipality - "Integrated rehabilitation of the Vilar Forest: from tourist enjoyment to sustainability", which is based on the materialization of a set of integrated and innovative interventions, in order to enhance the natural cultural heritage of the region, the diversification and qualified complement of the tourist offer, the awareness and information of the public on matters of nature conservation and sustainability, and the enhancement of the local social landscape, by linking the tourist promotion with the local communities.