In 2019, the edition of the Preserve Nature Program focused on burning areas and for this reason the competition was opened only to the municipalities of the districts most affected by the fires of 2017 and 2018: Coimbra, Castelo Branco, Viseu, Guarda, Leiria , Santarém and Faro.
During July, 14 applications were received from the municipalities of Oleiros, Vila de Rei, Figueira da Foz, Seia, Castro Daire, Gouveia, Nelas, Lousã, Vouzela, Tondela, Vila Nova de Poiares, Alvaiázere, Leiria and Mação.
In August, the jury, consisting of two members of EDP Distribuição and one member of the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF), reviewed the applications against defined criteria and recommended that all applications submitted be approved as valid.
Future interest is to ensure the agility of the process so that by the end of the year, the projects constituting the proposals submitted will be submitted for approval to the ICNF under the Legal Regime applicable to afforestation and reforestation actions (RJAAR), in order to carry out the purchase of trees by EDP Distribuição to suppliers of Forest Reproduction Materials (MFR) / nursery owners who already have the projects duly authorized.
