A Sunday Market with a Vision: The Barrocais Protected Landscape

There’s something wonderful about an ordinary Sunday market turning into the setting for something much bigger. That’s exactly what happened this morning in Santa Catarina, where the monthly market played host to the public presentation of the proposed Barrocais Protected Landscape.

Under a white marquee, with market stalls carrying on around us, I ran into old friends Rob and Rosie Peddle, there representing MGAP (the Mediterranean Garden Association Algarve), one of the partners supporting the initiative. It’s always a pleasure bumping into them. They have done so much with their association and now they turn out to be part of something very worthwhile. Alongside them were representatives from Tavira Câmara and the Santa Catarina freguesia, all gathered for the occasion.

The project itself has been years in the making. Back in early 2025, MGAP’s board began discussing involvement in creating a large protected area, mostly within the Tavira Câmara boundaries. Members voted to support the idea at the 2026 AGM, funding the scientific study needed to make the case for protection. That study has now been completed, backed by a specialist team and students from the University of the Algarve’s Landscape Architecture master’s programme.

What they’ve produced is genuinely striking. Inside the marquee, panel speakers laid out proposals for the Barrocal, that distinctive stony landscape bridging the Algarve’s coast and its mountains. There were plans for a cultural sector centred on old ruins, stone walls, and lime kilns. A recreational zone along the Ribeira do Tojo, with picnic areas among olive and carob orchards. An entry portal imagined as a gateway into the “soul of the Barrocais,” alongside proposals reaching further west toward Moncarapacho and the Cerro da Cabeça, and a circular trail around the Monte da Corcunda.

The morning’s programme moved through welcomes from the Câmara, the students showing their work, and a formal opening of the consultation. It closed with a guided walk out into the Barrocais itself, the landscape everyone had spent the morning talking about.

What struck me most was the sense of collaboration in the space: council officials, a grassroots garden association, university students and their professors, and a local parish council, all pulling in the same direction for a patch of land that has supported traditional farming, stone walls, and wildlife for generations. The habitats here already meet European criteria for mandatory protection. Now there’s a real proposal, backed by solid research, sitting in front of the people who can act on it.

The panels will move on to the Ribeira Market in Tavira for the next two weeks, and the presentation gets an encore at the MGAP Autumn Mediterranean Garden Fair on 17 October. If you’re in the area, it’s worth a look. This is the kind of patient work that could shape how this corner of the eastern Algarve is protected for a very long time.