"2018 was a watershed year for ASMAA as we progressed through the transformation process that started in 2017," writes Laurinda Seabra from the Association.

Anti-Oil Drilling Campaigns: as we have done since the creation of ASMAA, our primary focus continued to be the “Nem UM Furo” anti-oil drilling national campaign.

Multiple actions took place right throughout the year across Portugal. During the year many updating and feedback sessions where run in Alentejo, Algarve and Central Portugal.

In 2010, water was officially recognised as a universal human right by the United Nations. However, the European Union has yet to do the same.

The management of water has long been in the hands of private companies, but resistance to this profit-driven model has increased in Europe since 2000. Activists against water privatisation in Portugal, Greece and Ireland say that the EU applies pressure to privatise water services using the economic crisis as a pretext for the creation of a water market in Europe.

The European Union is keen to lead the world in significantly reducing the immense problem of plastic litter.

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have reached a political agreement based on ambitious new measures proposed by the European Commission.

'A new EU Forest Strategy: for forests and the forest sector'

Introduction: the EU Forest Strategy

In 2013, the Communication ‘A new Forest Strategy: for forests and the forest-based sector’ (‘the Strategy’) set a new EU framework to coordinate and ensure coherence in forest-related policies and enhance the contribution of forests and the forest-based sector to EU objectives. Sustainable forest management (SFM), the multifunctional role of forests, resource efficiency and global forest responsibility are its guiding principles.

An €80 million investment putting sustainability at the top of the agenda and including a wellness hotel, low-density lodges and areas for detached homes will be set within an estate on the Guadiana River.

For years the EN125 has been a dangerous road. It's already the road to death! For years there was a project to repair and upgrade it. The A22 motorway across the Algarve was built using EU-funds and was never meant to be sold off but a foreign fund now owns the concession.

A minister said maintaining the EN125 by using a contractor friendly to PS+PSD, is expensive. If they did as in Germany, where maintenance is paid by the state but controlled by the Councils, it would cost half.

Use of PV can reduce diesel consumption in energy-intensive cultivation in southern Europe, writes Pilar Sánchez Molina from PV Magazine.

Italian, Spanish and Portuguese scientists have published a study about energy consumption and the environmental footprint of the use of solar-hybrid irrigation systems in olive plantations in Portugal and Morocco.

It is now five months since the Câmara Municipal de Lagoa (CML) referred the matter of Alagoas Brancas to the government bodies, APA and ICNF following a public consultation process initiated by the Câmara in April.

To date, there has been no further official communication from either the local or national government.