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The official launch of the project “EJMapping | Counter-mapping environmental justice conflicts in the European periphery: The case of Portugal” will take place on 5 December 2025, between 9:30 and 17:00, in CES’ Room 1, and online. This marks the beginning of in-depth research dedicated to identifying and analysing environmental justice conflicts in the country.

EJMapping aims to understand how different activities - industrial, energy, agro-industrial, tourism, mining or related to large infrastructure - have influenced ecosystems and communities, sometimes contributing to situations of social and ecological vulnerability.

The project is coordinated by researcher Gustavo García López and involves the participation of Eliane Rapchan, Joana Vaz Sousa and Jonas Van Vossole, within the scope of the CES Ecology and Society Lab (ECOSOC).

A participatory and multidisciplinary approach

Based on a counter-mapping methodology, the project values the knowledge of the people who inhabit the affected territories and their direct experience of the social, political, and environmental impacts. The team will:

• Develop a national map of environmental conflicts, inspired by the Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas), based on a national survey focusing on the period after 2018;
• Conduct in-depth case studies in the Centro, Alentejo and Algarve regions;
• Directly involve citizens, organisations, institutions and environmental movements;
• Collect testimonies through interviews, participatory observation, body-territory mapping and sound and visual recordings.

A space for dialogue and reflection

The launch meeting aims to present the project to the community, promote critical reflection and encourage forms of participation that will accompany the development of EJMapping. It will also be a moment of mutual listening among people involved in environmental struggles and CES researchers, reinforcing the university's role in engaged research and the promotion of environmental justice.

Participation is free, but prior registration is required.