Mass tourism goes green

Portugal plans world’s first large-scale eco-resort Could a 30,000-bed tourist resort on the Portuguese coast mean anything other than acres of concrete villas and sunburnt Brits? If WWF and Bioregional have anything to do with it, yes. They’ve chosen Mata de Sesimbra as the site of the world’s first large-scale eco-tourism project - and it’s to be modelled on BedZED, the zero emissions community in south London. Due to open in three years’ time, the resort will be run entirely on renewable energy. Within 20 years, the 5,300-hectare complex should be ‘zero waste’; in fact within the first year it should already be diverting 50% from landfill. There’s a target for food too - sourcing 50% of it locally, to cut ‘food miles’ and help revive farming livelihoods in the surrounding area. A sustainable transport network has been planned to wean visitors off cars. And could such a resort be complete without a water-hungry golf course? Here the big difference will be that it’s irrigated by treated wastewater. Horse riding and cycling in the woods are on the cards too, thanks to a reforestation scheme which aims to transform the surrounding area, currently scarred by quarrying and insensitive tourism, into a haven for birds. The developers’ vision goes well beyond eco-holidaying, however. The resort has been designed to pioneer environmentally sustainable living. If everyone lived as we currently do in Europe, we would need three planets to support us, but Mata de Sesimbra will demonstrate that it is possible to live within the resource limits of the only one we have. It’s just the start of a chain of beacon ‘One Planet Living’ communities that WWF and Bioregional hope to build elsewhere in Europe, the US, China, South Africa and Australia. - Hannah Bullock

27 January 2005

Hannah Bullock