Occupying 18% of the country’s territory, Portugal is home to a unique set of mountainous regions. Portugal’s mountainous regions include the Serra da Estrela, the highest mountain range in the country, which is rich in biodiversity and culture. Other mountain regions include Serra do Geres, Serra da Lousa, and Serra de Sao Mamede. The country’s mountainous regions formed about 540 million years ago as a result of tectonic activity. Other natural processes, such as erosion and weathering, helped to shape the mountains into what they are today.
The mountainous regions of Portugal are also home to marginalised communities. These areas are often overlooked and have experienced abandonment from younger generations. Portuguese marginalised mountainous regions are characterised by economic disparity, limited infrastructure, and a lack of innovation. Nevertheless, these areas are becoming a hub for ecotourism and exposing the rest of Europe to what they have to offer.
Notable Projects
The below projects actively support research and life in Portuguese marginalised mountain areas. MARGISTAR believes in their efforts and invites you to follow these projects online or connect with their representatives within the MARGISTAR consortium.
Meet MARGISTAR's Portuguese Members
Dr. Antonio Monteiro
Researcher at University of LisbonAntonio is a remote sensing scientist and lecturer devoted to impact assessment of anthropogenic activity and climate change in mountain systems. Previous work addressed the impact of land cover/use transitions; the assessment and modelling of biodiversity responses; the mapping of deforestation, carbon stocks and carbon emissions; the evaluation of artificial intelligence for remote sensing change detection in pastoral systems; policy evaluation and project management. The final goal is to support decision and transition into sustainability of mountain communities and their stakeholders. He has performed research and consulting in the mountain systems of Europe and Africa (Angola, Madagascar).
Dr. Fiona Bakas
Assistant Professor at Lusofona UniversityFiona Eva Bakas, PhD, is a critical tourism researcher and lecturer with international teaching experience. She holds a PhD in Tourism (Otago University, 2014), has 20 years of varied work experience (corporate and academic), and is currently a tourism lecturer at Lusófona University, and IGOT, University of Lisbon, Portugal. In 2021-2022 she was a visiting lecturer at Dalarna University, Sweden. In 2017-2020 she was a contracted postdoctoral researcher in a nation-wide project on creative tourism in rural areas and small cities (CREATOUR), at the University of Coimbra. She is associate member of NGO Equality in Tourism.
Ana Margarida Silva
Researcher at Centre for Intercultural Studies, ISCAP-P.PORTOAna Margarida Silva has a degree in Modern Languages from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities – University of Coimbra and completed a Master’s Degree in Intercultural Studies for Business at ISCAP-P.Porto. In 2021, she became a researcher at the Centre for Intercultural Studies (CEI-ISCAP-P.PORTO), collaborating with the StreetArtCEI, ENDING, Augmented Assessment and SciArt projects. Her research interests involve street art, cultural and creative industries, rural and mountain tourism, social development as well as social innovation and sociocultural entrepreneurship. She is currently a PhD student in Cultural Studies: Memory, Identity, Territory and Language at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Dr. Maria Rivera Mendez
Postdoctoral Researcher at University of ÉvoraPostdoc Researcher for the University of Évora currently involved in H2020 project DIVINFOOD, and Portuguese national funded projects. She got her Ph.D. on Rural Development Project Planning and Sustainable Management by the Technical University of Madrid and graduated from Keele University in the U.K. on Environmental Sciences and International Relations. María has experience on the dynamics and the sociology of rural areas and communities as well as on project management. She participated in many EU financed projects in the fields of food systems, rural development, social innovation, and agricultural sociology.
Dr. José Muñoz-Rojas
Assistant Professor at University of ÉvoraDr. José Muñoz-Rojas is an Assistant Professor and Researcher in Rural Landscape Dynamics at University of Évora.
