Approximately 40 percent of the region’s investment budget will be allocated to the environment and climate action,” Susana Prada said in the Legislative Assembly of Madeira, in the special assessment of the PSD/CDS government’s Budget and Plan for 2021, within the framework of the Special Committee on Economy, Finance and Tourism.

She stressed that the Madeiran executive has earmarked these “310 million Euros to continue the policies defined by the Regional Government”.

The executive expects to add to this figure “€143 million from the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Plan to combat climate change”.
The funds “will be invested in sustainable water resources management, renewable electricity and the digital transition”.

“The focus of our investments is on adapting the territory to the lower water availability, the increased risk of fire and the rise in sea level”, she stressed.
Around nine million Euros will go to the forest area for fire prevention, nature conservation and the restoration of leisure areas, “given the magnitude of their role in the safety of the population, the environment, the landscape and tourism in the region”.

In this ORAM2021, €32 million is earmarked for “management, waste recovery and basic sanitation”, with “the largest investment amounts allocated to network efficiency, combating water losses and strengthening agricultural irrigation flows”.

The government said that around three million euros are also allocated to environmental management, spatial planning and circular economy “with majority investments for environmental quality measures and cadastre”.

Answering questions from opposition parties, the secretary said that the regional government would spend €1.4 million on recovering the various recommended footpaths.

A further €5.5 million is planned to combat forest fires and €3.6 million in subsidies to farmers due to problems with irrigation water.

The conservation programme for the sea wolf colony in the Desertas Islands reserve, set up 30 years ago, has been outlined for the period 2014-2019 and “is coming to an end,” but “another will come,” according to the government.

In the ORAM2021 proposal, the Madeiran executive allocated €29.6 million to the Secretariat for the Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change, representing an increase of 21.4 percent compared to 2020.