The PCP starts today parliamentary days in Serra da Estrela with a focus on the environment, almost a year after the region was ravaged by a fire, and also stops in the districts of Castelo Branco and Guarda.
The conference will start at 9am in Covilhã, with a visit to the Wool Museum at the University of Beira Interior (UBI), followed by the traditional opening session at 11am, which will feature speeches by the party’s general secretary, Paulo Raimundo, and by the communist parliamentary leader, Paula Santos.
Between today and Tuesday, the PCP deputies will have initiatives in several municipalities that make up the Serra da Estrela National Park, focusing, as Paula Santos told journalists, on issues “related to the environment and the impact of fires.
“We are talking about a natural park that was devastated by a fire less than a year ago and we want to evaluate the impacts, but also what is needed for the recovery of the protected areas, of biodiversity, of nature,” said the PCP parliamentary leader.
On August 06, 2022, a fire broke out in the region of Serra da Estrela that swept through two districts (Castelo Branco and Guarda) and six municipalities, consuming about 24,000 hectares of land. According to the Civil Protection, it was the largest fire of the last 47 years in that region.
In the program of the PCP parliamentary days is planned a meeting with the population of the village of Gonçalo, in the district of Guarda, which was affected by this fire, and meetings with the commander of the Covilhã Voluntary Fire Brigade and with a member of the board of the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF).
“We have, within the framework of our program, a series of meetings planned (…) with producers, with the common lands, with associations and entities that intervene in the environmental area and even with the natural park itself,” Paula Santos said.
In addition to the environmental theme, the PCP parliamentary leader indicated that issues such as national production, the proximity of public services or the “concerns with job creation” will also be addressed, aspects that she considered to be more pressing in an “inland region” such as Serra da Estrela.
“The issues of population settlement in these regions – which have felt neglected by the government’s responses on various matters – will be issues that we will keep in mind,” he added.
On these issues, the PCP has scheduled a visit to a farm in the village of Valhelhas, district of Guarda, and meetings with the Union of Trade Unions of Castelo Branco, the dean of UBI and with the direction of the Frei Heitor Pinto school grouping.
Paula Santos sustained that this is a “diversified program” and in a “region that needs investment to potentiate its riches”, particularly the “natural riches”.
On Tuesday, the PCP parliamentary days should end at 4pm, with a press conference to present the conclusions.
The last parliamentary days of the PCP took place between January 30th and 31st, in Beja, focusing on transports, and in particular the railroad, agricultural production and infrastructures.
