On the 3rd of December, the LIFE Maronesa project organised another Focus Group with the aim of evaluating the impact of the project and so that the interaction between the participants would provide ideas and guidelines in order to achieve the objectives proposed in the application and complete all the project’s performance indicators (KPIs). The focus group session was once again mediated by the agency responsible for evaluating the project, RHE Initiative. As the project is in the process of implementing the Commercialisation and Economic Enhancement actions (C3 and C4), the panel, in addition to the natural presence of breeders, academics and technicians linked to livestock farming, this year included academics from the field of economics, tourism agents from the Lamas de Ôlo, Souto and Outeiro common lands, as well as restaurant professionals and meat processing workers. Present were the farmer and manager of the Souto and Outeiro common land, a meat processing and cutting worker, academics from UTAD and IPB, a technician from Vila Pouca de Aguiar Municipality, FORESTWISE and tourism agents from Retiros do Vale, Casas do Vínculo and the chef from the Pena Park Hotel.
The debate to assess the impact of the project on the group’s professional areas led to a dialogue focused on the objectives of the Clima Mais Positivo brand, highlighting the role of creating a strong communication strategy; supporting and training the territory’s tourism agents to work with consumers, so that they can assimilate the knowledge acquired by the project team; the importance of creating initiatives to attract the immigrant public who return during the summer holidays; having a stronger approach to companies that stand out for their social and environmental responsibility initiatives; seeking to create activities and visits, in addition to the schools in the 4 municipalities where the project is being implemented, to other schools in the regions of Viseu, Chaves and Bragança and in highly populated urban areas such as Porto and Braga.