The European Union delegation in Cape Verde and three associations on Tuesday January 30 signed funding contracts for 2.75 million euros to promote tourist activities in protected areas that also guarantee income for those who live there.
“The civil society organizations that will be contracted will present their respective work plans,” explained ambassador Carla Grijó, considering that “the important thing is that the activities to be developed have a multiplier nature”.
“What we’re interested in is generating activities that are sustainable, that create income opportunities for the people who live there,” she explained, speaking of the archipelago’s little-explored landscapes, compared to the beaches that attract almost all foreign tourists.
The funding covers projects for the less visited islands of Santo Antão, São Nicolau and Fogo, to be carried out by Associação Amigos da Natureza (in Santo Antão), Associação de Desenvolvimento do Património de Mértola (in Santo Antão and São Nicolau), and COSPE (Fogo island).
It also covers various areas, such as promoting local accommodation or creating viewpoints, but also postgraduate courses and the creation of the Natural.cv brand.
One of the associations also highlights the need to guarantee food security for the communities living within the protected areas.
There are also some studies planned, for example, to explore the potential for creating a geopark or the viability of marketing carbon credits.
“The focus of development is people,” said the Minister for Agriculture and the Environment, Gilberto Silva, during Tuesday’s ceremony. “We have to boost activities in these [protected] areas, making the most of what we have in terms of biodiversity”, he added, in line with the Government’s aim of developing nature-based and sustainable tourism.