Biosphere Destination

The Historic Village of Castelo Rodrigo, as the whole network of Historic Villages of Portugal, was the only network destination in Portugal and the first in the world, to be awarded with the certification BIOSPHERE DESTINATION. With this certification, the village is prepared to achieve the objectives set out in the program “Agenda 2030 for sustainable development”, always and per the 17 criteria for sustainable development defined by the United Nations.

This process which took around two years (2016-2018), with the attribution of the respective BIOSPHERE DESTINATION certificate, has prepared the Historic Village of Castelo Rodrigo to face the demands of the future, and most of all by allowing a new model of tourism development not aggressive, but which satisfies the needs of current customers, without compromising future generations, by ensuring an adequate long-term balance between the economic, socio-cultural and environmental dimensions of the destination. Concrete examples of this are the cycle of events “12em Rede–Aldeias em Festa”, the project All for All (accessibility project), the optical fiber network project, and the “Histórias Criativas” project, all promoted and driven by the Historic Villages of Portugal. At the private level, there were significant changes, not only in terms of urban renewal but also with the creation of new businesses related to the tourism activity that involves the endogenous products in the region.