This is an intervention that allows the redesign of a space of great value for its tourist and environmental interest, such as Muíño Beach. This is how the president of the Deputación de Pontevedra, Carmela Silva, summarized the intervention called “Connection of pedestrian, coastal, and river trails and regeneration of the Muíño Beach area, located in the Minho River estuary”.
The works represent a total investment of €700,000 and follow a model of sustainability, environmental respect, surroundings recovery, accessibility, and pedestrian priority.
The environmental project, funded through Visit Rio Minho (POCTEP 2014-2020), in the Galician municipality of A Guarda, responds to the historic demand for regeneration of the area “where people and nature are now at the center of everything,” according to President Carmela Silva.
The president of the Deputación de Pontevedra, along with the director of AECT Rio Minho, Uxío Benítez, and the mayor of A Guarda, inaugurated the new accesses to Muíño Beach, in Camposancos, the gateway to the protected natural area of the Minho River estuary, promoted by the “Visit Rio Minho” project, as part of the actions for the creation of the “Green Ring of Minho”, which consists of a network of trails with over one hundred kilometers of cycle paths and pedestrian paths between Galicia and Portugal.
The project required an investment of nearly €200,000 to recover and regenerate the surrounding area, preserving and protecting this high ecological value space. Accessibility and beach services were also improved, traffic regulation implemented, a new wooden footbridge installed, a pedestrian platform created, and the sand area regenerated. This intervention allows the recovery of one of the municipality’s most important areas from a tourist and environmental perspective.
The deputy and director of AECT highlighted the new accesses to Muíño Beach within the framework of the European project “Visit Rio Minho”, emphasizing the “importance of cross-border cooperation for the economic development of the Minho River area, to become stronger and promote projects that attract more visitors.” Uxío Benítez stated that the Muíño project will continue, as the goal is “to connect, through a trail, the entire Minho River from A Guarda to Crecente and from Melgaço to Caminha, so that we can offer it as a cross-border tourist product to the world.”
Uxío Benítez, director of AECT Rio Minho, highlighted the role of cross-border cooperation “for economic development, to become stronger, and to promote projects that attract visitors.”
For her part, the provincial president, who also praised the Visit Rio Minho project, emphasized that the accesses to Muíño Beach “have nothing to do with what was here just a few months ago,” since “it transforms a unique place into an even more special and attractive place, recovering what nature gave us, which here has incalculable value. At the Deputación, we believe that public administrations exist to change, transform, improve, and create wealth, and this type of project achieves it.”
In the same line, Antonio Lomba stated that the intervention represents “a dream fulfilled.” The mayor highlighted that “public administrations must promote actions appropriate to the place where we are, and I believe this project deserves the qualification of excellent, as it is very well integrated into the environment and provides a valuable service.” Lomba also recalled that “not long ago this area was an empty lot, without space for people, and we wanted to recover it for pedestrian traffic and to also connect the coastal and river trails of the Minho River.”
The Visit Rio Minho project has a total approved budget of €2,000,000, with a 75% contribution from the EU FEDER funds, totaling €1,500,000.
