Verde Barrio

Verde Bairro [Green Neighbourhood] is a project that aims to build relationships between the inhabitants and the historical town centre of Montemor-o-Novo, as a way of promoting quality of life, through activities to raise awareness of climate change and to promote biodiversity. These include the installation of mini-gardens of native and edible plants (pots placed at doors and windows), the supply of plants, the creation of a bug hotel, workshops and awareness-raising campaigns.

The neighbourhood, the street and biodiversity are the starting point for thinking about the importance of the public space and green spaces in urban environments, both for the health and well-being of the population and for the environmental quality of towns and cities. The Verde Bairro project is based on the observation of green spaces in cities or the lack thereof, the way they are managed and how and where citizens appropriate these spaces, such as small flowerbeds, planting around the base of trees, planting outside people's front doors, etc.

The idea of distributing pots containing various native and edible species also stems from the need to raise awareness of the scarcity of water, especially in the Alentejo, and of the use of species suited to our climate and their importance in promoting biodiversity and creating shade in an urban environment, to regulate the high temperatures in summer.

At the same time, Alentejo is a region with an ageing population and has many cases of older persons living in isolation, a situation that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting crisis; since the green spaces and the public space are potential spaces for meeting and socialising, this initiative has proven to be an excellent means of communication between neighbours, between new and old residents of the historical centre of Montemor-o-Novo.