Lisbon, Dec. 12, 2025 (Lusa) - The government has approved the creation of the Blue Forest - Ecological Restoration of Marine Meadows programme, which aims to contribute to the National Nature Restoration Plan, the recovery of areas of greater ecological importance and the resilience of the coastline.
The decree, published on Friday in the Official Gazette and signed by Minister for the Environment and Energy Maria da Graça Carvalho and Secretary of State for Fisheries and the Sea Salvador Malheiro, highlights the importance of seagrass beds and the need to protect them.
"Seagrass beds are ecosystems of high ecological importance, performing essential functions of blue carbon sequestration, maintenance of marine biodiversity, sediment stabilisation and protection of the coastal zone," the decree reads.
In the decree published today, the government authorises the Environmental Fund to assume the cost of €2 million for 2026 and 2027, and €1 million per year for actions planned under the Blue Forest programme.
According to the decree, in Portugal, seagrass beds are mainly composed of "Zostera marina, Zostera noltei and Cymodocea nodosa, constituting some of the most sensitive habitats in the country", covering coastal, estuarine and lagoon areas, including the Ria Formosa, the Mira estuary, the Tagus and Sado estuaries, the Óbidos Lagoon and the Aveiro estuary.
According to the law, there are "several studies that warn of a regression in their distribution area," which jeopardises the productivity of marine ecosystems, negatively impacting fishing and other economic activities linked to the sea, and resulting in a loss of biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services.
"Their degradation, resulting from anthropogenic pressures and the impact of climate change, requires a coordinated response, based on science and aligned with national and international commitments on biodiversity and climate action," the law continues.
Therefore, recognising the importance of these ecosystems, as well as the pressures and threats affecting them, the Ministry of Environment and Energy, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Sea, decided to create a programme "structured for the ecological restoration of seagrass beds, in line with national nature conservation policy priorities, involving various entities that are available to collaborate in this process with knowledge and capacity for intervention".
The initiative, the document continues, contributes to the National Nature Restoration Plan, providing for "restoration measures that are necessary to bring a series of marine habitats into a good state of conservation".
"By 2030, it is important to recover 30% of the total area of priority habitats that are not in good condition," adds the text of the law.
The main distribution sites are in protected areas, such as the Ria Formosa Natural Park and the Sado Estuary Nature Reserve, as well as in areas classified under the Natura 2000 Network.
The seagrass restoration initiative contributes to the effective safeguarding and recovery of these priority habitats, especially when integrated into marine protected areas.
The Blue Forest programme Ecological Restoration of Seagrass Meadows programme will operate based on programme contracts to be established between the Climate Agency, which manages the Environmental Fund, the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests, and a series of entities working in the field of seagrass meadow conservation and restoration, including research centres and environmental protection associations with projects to be developed in various regions of the country.
According to the law, the programme's beneficiaries are higher education institutions, research centres and other non-profit entities of recognised technical, scientific and/or community merit, with proven activity in the conservation and ecological restoration of seagrass beds.
RCP/ADB // ADB.
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