Local

Monchique is one of the municipalities in the country that has suffered most from depopulation and, in the last 40 years, its population has fallen by half, to around 5,000 at present. To reverse the trend towards depopulation and ensure the town’s sustainability in the coming decades, this Algarve municipality is focusing on incentives to retain and increase the local population, with support for the construction and reconstruction of buildings, exemption from municipal taxes and tariffs, and complimentary projects and technical support for people wishing to settle in the municipality, along with other initiatives. But will these measures be sufficient …

A second-hand store guide (Algarve) Born out of creativity and crisis, second-hand shops have been proliferating throughout the country, buying and selling almost anything you can imagine. Apart from cars, it is the gold business which has the biggest market share, since the Portuguese have always bought this commodity as a security in times of financial difficulty. Clothing, furniture, electrical appliances and similar goods used to be sold largely by charity shops, to which people donated things they didn’t want any more. But that is no longer the case and buying and selling these articles (even on consignment) has become …

A second-hand store guide (Porto) Portugal’s second city hosts an abundance of second-hand stores of the most varied types. Even though book stores predominate, there are also antique and similar stores specialising in collectors items and furniture whilst the prices in effect are beyond the reach of regular consumers. On occasion, this may damage one of the factors key to this guide, the recycling of products as a means to ensuring greater sustainability, but does nevertheless enable the discovery of rare and very high quality items. In Porto, the leading place for browsing for second-hand items is undoubtedly the Vandoma …

It’s just a small step from organic agriculture to sustainable development Projecto 270 may be just a farm, but it is actually much more than that. It covers half a hectare and is located between the beaches of Praia da Riviera and Praia da Rainha on the Costa da Caparica. It’s been running for a decade and is organically certified. The idea for the project arose in Genoa at a demonstration against globalisation, putting into practice the motto “Think globally, act locally”. Its name comes from the number of the plot. To start with it was quite a sandy, family …