Oakland – Six cities in Portugal have signed on to a novel ecological footprint project in which state budget allocations will be based on the size of the cities’ ecological footprints and available resources.
The three-year project was launched by Global Footprint Network and four
Portuguese partners: the non-governmental organization ZERO-Associação
Sistema Terrestre Sustentável and the universities of Aveiro,
Coimbra and Porto.
During the first year of the project, the ecological
footprints and biocapacities of the six participating cities –
Almada, Bragança, Castelo Branco, Guimarães, Lagoa, and Vila Nova
de Gaia – will be measured to establish a baseline.
The ecological footprint measures the city’s demand for
natural resources and CO2 sequestration, while biocapacities
measures the capacity of the city’s natural resources to meet that
demand. According to a statement announcing the project,
this data will then be used to help guide the sustainability
policies for the participating cities.
In the second year, the five partners will develop calculators
for the cities to allow citizens to measure their personal
ecological footprints. The calculator will be used to catalyse
local workshops and roundtables to discuss the implications of the
footprint results, as well as mitigation and policy options.
In the final year of the project, the partners will propose
alternative approaches to state funding for the six cities based on
the size of their ecological footprints and biocapacities.
The project partners are convinced that state funding can be a
powerful incentive for environmental action. “Above all, the
actions and the effort that municipalities take to reduce this
footprint can be rewarded,” said ZERO president Francisco
Ferreira.
The project will begin in January 2018.