Regional Secretary for the Environment and Climate Action marks World Environment Day

June 6, 2024

The Regional Secretary for the Environment and Climate Action, Alonso Miguel, marked World Environment Day on Wednesday, June 5, with a visit to the Caldeira do Faial Nature Reserve.

"World Environment Day, whose main theme this year is "Accelerating land recovery, resilience to drought and desertification," aims to alert people to the effects of the destruction of nature, loss of biodiversity and pollution, and the negative impacts of climate change," stressed Alonso Miguel.

According to the Secretary for the Environment, "this issue has an important significance for the Azores, as the Regional Government made a major financial and operational effort to safeguard the protection and restoration of natural habitats, as well as to ensure mitigation and adaptation to climate change in the Region."

Alonso Miguel pointed out that "the Regional Secretariat for the Environment and Climate Action currently has four LIFE projects underway, to promote nature conservation, preserve biodiversity, and mitigating and adapting to climate change, representing an overall investment of more than 40 million Euros."

The Regional Secretary explained that "these and other projects intend to protect and restore important natural habitats, such as peatlands, which are habitats of great importance for regulating the hydrological cycle, recharging aquifers, retaining and purifying water, sequestering carbon and, consequently, mitigating the effects of climate change and combating drought and desertification."

"The project to Improve Knowledge of the Location and Conservation Status of Organic Soils and Peatlands, which this Secretariat completed in late 2023, with an investment of 1.5 million Euros, is a good example of the efforts made by the Regional Government in this regard," he added.

Alonso Miguel revealed that the celebrations of World Environment Day, among many other activities taking place on all islands, included a visit to the Caldeira do Faial Nature Reserve, with the participation of about fifty workers of the Regional Secretariat for the Environment and Climate Action, aimed at raising awareness of the importance of environmental preservation and nature conservation.

"The Caldeira do Faial Nature Reserve was the first classified protected area in the Azores and is home to an extraordinary natural heritage. It is a hotspot of endemic flora and fauna, home to two-thirds of the Azores' endemic vascular flora, in a perfect state of conservation, as well as relevant natural habitats such as peat bogs," added Alonso Miguel.

The Caldeira do Faial has several protected statuses. It was classified as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Area (SPA) under the Natura 2000 Network, as a Ramsar Site and as a geosite of the Azores Geopark - UNESCO World Geopark.