In this episode, we hear from Rui Monteiro, and especially his experience working with the RioNeiva Environmental NGO. He tells us about this NGO, its origins in society and the local context of the northern coast of Portugal, and how the association evolved over time in its continued quest to ensure the environmental and social sustainability in the area, handling various emerging challenges and opportunities. He shares about some of the pillars that make this a very successful NGO, both in reaching its environmental objectives, engaging a broad and multi-level, multi-generational, and multi-disciplinary audience, and in bridging this even to the international level through extremely inspiring projects funded by the New European Bauhaus (European Commission), and other funders, including at the Portuguese national level.

You can find several of the projects the RioNeiva NGO has worked on in the References below, several of which are mentioned in the episode. I also include some more academic publications which have also resulted from these projects, and heartily invite you to watch the documentaries associated to most of the projects linked, which have been created by Ana Clara Roberti. Some of the documentaries have English subtitles.

Take-away for planners:

- Incorporate green and blue spaces whenever possible

- Even if it takes time, incorporate new insights as soon as possible into planning processes

- Projects such as the ones exemplified by the RioNeiva NGO can provide much inspiration!

References:

RioNeiva projects (see the exhibition photos and reports from each project on the respective websites as well):

Resonances: sound and cultural flows from water

MofWaste. Museum of food waste (in Portuguese)

Stories from both sides (site in Portuguese, but documentary with English subtitles)

Minante. Prototyping a natural and cultural experience for public space co-creation.

Academic references:

Roberti, A. C., von Schönfeld, K. C., & Monteiro, R. (2025). From Riverbank to Ocean: Involving Young Generations With Their Territory Through Artistic Practices. Ocean & Society, 2. https://doi.org/10.17645/oas.9634

von Schönfeld, K. C., Monteiro, R., Roberti, A. C., & Conceição, G. C. (2025). Exploring the Potentials of Rural Tactical Action for Co-Creating Heritage: The Case of the “Minante” Project. Heritage & Society, 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159032X.2025.2555019

von Schönfeld, K. C., Roberti, A. C. N., Lopes, B., & Conceição, G. (2023). (Re-)valuing and co-creating cultures of water: A transdisciplinary methodology for weaving a live tapestry of Blue Heritage. International Journal of Heritage Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2023.2234349

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