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The environmental association A Rocha is planning to launch an ecotourism business to show the Algarve and Alentejo natural beauties. Guillaume Réthoré, one of the volunteers involved in forming the company assumes that the goal is to start before the end of 2010, but they don’t have a concrete date yet. Guillaume, which is a Biologist, explains to the Algarve Observer that the main purpose is to ”show the many wonderful places which don’t have much touristic pressure”, with special emphasis on the bird watching activities”.

“We want also to unveil the Portuguese culture”, since the main clients will be British and French.

The areas to explore are the Ria de Alvor, Cabo de São Vicente, Monchique, Lagoa dos Salgados, Salema, Burgau, Ria Formosa and Sapal de Castro Marim, with the Alentejo region on mind for the second stage of the project. The NGO doesn’t exclude the possibility to make tours on Spain.

About the length of the tours, it can be a week programme or a day programme, depending on the places chosen to visit.

Guillaume Réthoré is French and in 2007 completed a degree in Biology and Ecology in his home country. The will to know other countries and cultures led him to travel and to find the Associação A Rocha, where he took part of a volunteer programme, until July 2009.

Last November he came back for a holiday time, and was challenged to join the team to start the ecotourism business company: “I couldn’t find a job in France, so this is a very good opportunity to me”.

A Rocha is an international organisation dedicated to the conservation of nature, with projects all over Europe, Middle East, Africa, North and South America, Asia and Oceania.

In Portugal, its headquarters are in the Mexilhoeira Grande (Portimão). To know more about their activities, take a peek on the webpage.

source: http://www.observatoriodoalgarve.com

picture: João Mascarenhas