Lisbon shows the landscape of the whole country as European Green Capital
Visitors to Lisbon Green Capital Lisbon in 2020 will be invited to visit the whole country in an exhibition on natural parks, reserves and landscapes with about 1,200 square meters in the Museum of Natural History, was released today.
The exhibition will be conceived as an “immersive, diversified and innovative experience“, prepared to occupy for at least ten years the National Museum of Natural History and Science, according to a protocol signed today between the Environmental Fund, the Lisbon City Hall and the University of Lisbon.
“The order is: whoever enters this exhibition will like to visit these sites,” said José Sá Fernandes, an alderman of the Environment and Green Structure (independent, elected by the PS), adding that the school community is expected to be involved so that all educational establishments visit the exhibition.
There will also be a municipal award for schools, a class trip to a nature park or protected area.
The exhibition will cost between 900 thousand euros and 1.3 million euros, and the Environmental Fund will contribute 700 thousand euros, as stipulated in the document signed today.
The Minister of Environment and Energy Transition, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, welcomed the willingness of the municipality to “assume the responsibility of being a source of distribution of these visitors who come to Lisbon” and to involve the school community.
According to Matos Fernandes, the exhibition is one of the three vectors of climate change, the valorization of the territory, which coexists with decarbonization and the transformation of the linear economy into a circular economy.
“In the last year, parks and protected areas had almost half a million visitors, which meant a 15% increase in visitors compared to the previous year, and the previous year the number had been higher“, he said, about the appreciation of those territories.
Lisbon Mayor Fernando Medina (PS) has argued that it is fundamental that Green Capital 2020 is not an exercise in “institutional publicity” of the “past achievements” of the municipality or a projection of its future, but a “mobilization exercise” collective “action against climate change.”
“One of the reasons why Lisbon was awarded this distinction was also the ability to make the voice of the environmental cause and the cause of the fight against climate change, a city that takes a banner of its political action,” he said.
The European Green Capital award in 2020 was awarded to Lisbon by the European Commission, the first time being a city in southern Europe.
