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December 10, 2024

Isabel Sousa Pinto chairs the committee for the National Restoration Plan

The CIIMAR researcher has the mission of monitoring the evolution of the Plan and ensuring adequate discussion of this issue.

The CIIMAR researcher Isabel Sousa Pinto, chairs the Monitoring Committee of the National Restoration Plan with the mission of monitoring the Plan’s progress and ensuring proper discussion of this issue.

The Portuguese government is moving ahead with work to draw up the National Nature Restoration Plan following the approval of the Restoration Law by the Council of the European Union in June 2024. To this end, it is working with experts who can make a strong contribution to its design and implementation. It is in this context that Isabel Sousa Pinto has been invited to chair its monitoring committee.

The presence of the CIIMAR researcher on this monitoring committee comes after the Open Letter promoted by a group of CIIMAR researchers and signed by researchers from all over the country calling for a national restoration plan that ‘doesn’t leave the sea behind’. Isabel Sousa Pinto‘s chairmanship of the monitoring committee could ensure that the concerns of the national scientific community represented in the letter sent in November are taken into account in the design of a strategy that takes the sea and marine resources into account.

The National Nature Restoration Plan

The European Parliament requires Portugal to restore a minimum of 30% of the areas of habitats in unfavourable condition, with the area to be restored increasing to 60% by 2040 and 90% by 2050.Portugal must also ensure that the conservation status of most of these habitats is known by 2040. The percentage of marine habitats in unfavourable conservation status in Portugal can be as high as 75%, according to the Biodiversity Information System for Europe, and can include seagrass meadows, macroalgae forests, sponge and coral gardens, and hydrothermal vents.

Image: Pedro Nunes/REUTERS