The project FUTURE addresses three challenges at the regional level: improve and expand the natural capital, in particular native urban forests, which are related to a broader environmental quality context; emphasize the social capital, mainly through the creation of social networks that facilitate action and public participation; and promote inter-municipality cooperation so as to move the region to a more sustainable status.

The regional challenges addressed by the project extend from the Porto Metropolitan Area Environmental Strategic Plan (PMA-ESP). This plan resulted from a broad participatory regional planning process, conducted from 2003 through to 2008, and integrates the contributions of more than 5,000 citizens and 200 organizations and represents a shared view of the environmental challenges and solutions for the region. The plan concluded that citizens, decision-makers, researchers, educators, experts and government staff considered forest ecosystem management as a major challenge in the region. Education and training for sustainability as well as the need for participative citizens and more and better inter-municipality collaboration and teamwork also came up as very important issues.

With this is mind the Steering Committee of the Porto Metropolitan Area RCE decided to implement a great impact project that could address these several challenges simultaneously. The project was collaboratively design throughout 9 months.

The FUTURE’s aims are the reforestation and afforestation of approximately 100 hectares of land with 100,000 trees of autochthonous flora by 2016 and, at the same time, educate citizens on the importance of native forests and encourage the participation of all stakeholders in the creation, improvement and maintaining of the metropolitan forest.

The strategies adopted seek: to bring together public and private organizations (and its human and physical resources) and citizens (the willingness to learn and act); develop and promote training and action opportunities for citizens; monitor and give feedback on project progress; optimize all available resources.

The project activities range from: workgroup meetings; training courses; establishing procedures; promoting sharing of resources; deepening the collaboration between UCP and the outside community; structuring a volunteer programme; giving information and feedback; identifying and characterizing areas for intervention; and preparing, planting, maintaining and monitoring these areas.