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About the region
The P2R target region is predominantly rural region in south of Portugal, is composed by 5 Municipalities (Alvito, Cuba, Portel, Vinana do Alentejo, Vidigueira), with an aggregated population of 22.893 people (Census 2021). The 5 municipalities, all from Alentejo region (NUTS2), are distributed between two different sub-regions (NUTS3): Alentejo Central (Portel and Viana do Alentejo) and Baixo Alentejo (Alvito, Cuba, and Vidigueira).
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Main climate risks
heatwaves
Alentejo faces significant heat stress, with over 60 days of extreme heat recorded in summer 2024 [1]. Many homes lack air conditioning, making vulnerable groups—such as the elderly, children, and outdoor workers—especially at risk [2].
droughts
The region’s semi-arid Mediterranean climate makes it highly susceptible to drought, affecting agriculture, agroforestry, and forestry. Projections indicate a temperature rise of up to 3ºC and a 10% drop in annual precipitation, further straining water resources [3,4].
wildfires
Wildfire risk is increasing due to rising temperatures and lower precipitation. While Alentejo generally experiences fewer wildfires than northern Portugal, the frequency of extreme weather events is making the region more vulnerable [5].
Focus during Pathways2Resilience
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”Jane Goodall
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During P2R, Alentejo aims to foster climate awareness, adaptation and resilience of 5 communities (Alvito, Cuba, Portel, Viana do Alentejo, Vidigueira). They want to focus on social transformation and citizen empowerment, having public sector as the centre for the sustainability action.
The approach being conducted under P2R is intended to facilitate the development of the predicted plans and strategies for climate adaptation and resilience in a multi-municipal sphere, reinforcing collaboration and activating synergies among the 5 municipalities involved.
Behavioural change is a high priority. Current efforts focus on water and waste management, but despite some progress behavioural change is still slow. Additionally, the lead partner wants to improve collaboration and engagement across all five municipalities.
Interesting highlights
In parallel with the P2R journey, the region has several ongoing initiatives all aiming to support local communities and local authorities in climate adaptation and resilience, but as well in climate change mitigation. From these, we can highlight the following initiatives: URWAN (developing and testing the implementation of Nature-based Solutions in public buildings, focusing particularly the water scarcity and its rational management); RealUrbanGreen (Developing and testing entirely participatory methodologies for the co-design and co-management of green areas in urban context, focusing climate adaptation, sustainability and communities well-being); WITH4LESS (increasing awareness, knowledge and skills of the tourism value chain actors - micro & SME- in the adoption of best practices regarding water, energy and waste management).
Regional Resilience Journey
Alentejo has medium readiness for the first RRJ step and low readiness for the second and third RRJ steps.
Key community systems priority areas
water-management
land-food
Key enabling conditions priority areas
behavioural-change
governance-engagement-collaboration