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Building a Greener Cascais, ‘An Urban Park for the Future’ engages more than 300 citizens

3 min read • 19th September 2024

‘An Urban Park for the Future’ Summer Campaign has successfully engaged over 300 citizens in Cascais, Portugal.

Participants contributed their ideas and experiences to map thermal and bioclimatic comfort in the city at events, using sensors, a mobile app, and other resources, supporting Urban ReLeaf’s mission to create greener, more resilient urban spaces.

Translation available at the end of the article.

The summer campaign launched on July 5th at Bosque das Fontainhas, a forest area integral to the ‘Bosques de Cascais’ (Cascais Woods) strategy. This initiative aims to recover wooded areas of high landscape and ecological value through minimal construction interventions, enhancing usability and safety while preserving existing trees. The forest has planted native species and an informal trail has been created connecting it to the surrounding urban environment. 

This campaign kick-off was attended by the Vice Mayor of Cascais Nuno Piteira Lopes, he encouraged local residents to participate in the Urban ReLeaf project, emphasising the collective goal of making Cascais an increasingly green municipality. As he stated, “Together, we can make our municipality ever greener.” 

The success of this campaign was only possible thanks to the availability, commitment and friendliness of our volunteers from the volunteer programme in Cascais, who gave out gifts to citizens to encourage them to take part in the project. The gifts chosen were aromatic plants, seed bombs and seed pencils. 

The next Urban ReLeaf campaign in Cascais starts on 23 Oct. For more information, or if you are interested to take part, please contact: clima@cascaisambiente.pt 

Interview Video Translation, Vice Mayor of Cascais Nuno Piteira Lope states “Projects like this that bring together local communities with the authorities in the fight against climate change by planning urban green spaces that will contribute to Cascais municipality’s green policy. In recent years we have already recovered more than 250,000 square metres of urban parks creating an average of 2.5 square metres of green space for every Cascais inhabitant of this area. I would like to invite you all to join Urban relief together to make our municipality more and more Green”.