It’s Time to Re.Generate, Re.Youthen, Re.Activate and Re.Connect Rural Landscapes

I signed up for the Re.Rural Caravan, a three-day journey through a new Alentejo, alongside 50 people and an inspiring, ambitious program.

The proposal was this: “The Re.Rural Caravan is not just a route between three villages – São Luís, Montemor-o-Novo, and Mértola – it’s an invitation to gather around regenerative practices, to meet people and projects that care for the land and communities, and to strengthen the Re.Rural Ecosystem. An ecosystem of organizations that care for rural landscapes, sowing agroecological lifestyles, resilient communities, and awakened youth. To cultivate cultures of COoperation and REgeneration, promoting the flourishing of life in all its forms — human and more-than-human. Each stop, each shared meal, each conversation is thoughtfully designed to nourish body, mind, and soul.”

The slogan “It’s time to Re.Generate, Re.Youthen, Re.Activate, and Re.Connect rural landscapes — and also our own paths, ideas, and ways of being” couldn’t be more inspiring or aligned with Rota Vicentina’s purpose of bringing tourism into this equation.

Back in October, I had already taken part in the first gathering of this “ecosystem” — a week based at Co.Re – Rural Learning Center in São Luís, with a group of European Regenerators brought together under the banner: “Re-Rural Network – Partnership Building Activity.”

I came into it from a place of burnout, clearly caused by a non-regenerative culture, despite working in a field where the goal is to bring quality of life to the region. A clear contradiction. The group quickly took on the greater challenge: to “regenerate the regenerators.” To walk the talk, to be in order to do. It was easy to surrender to the process, thanks to the thoughtful and inspiring facilitation, ambitious goals, and a group determined to make the world better.

The most relevant insight was this: we must come together — intelligently, efficiently, humanly, affectively. We must embrace our humanity in the mission of working with such a fundamental motivation: to innovate and break down obsolete, crystallized, and demotivating barriers. And learning to work together is an art — it requires inspiration, space, trust, and method.

The group was diverse, and to me, it represented a portion of humanity truly committed to creating pathways in service of the collective. But beneath that more superficial layer, something deeper connected us.

The term Sustainability is worn out, and Regeneration is heading the same way. We must bring clarity and commitment to how we use these words. In this group, we explored concepts and applications in our territories and projects — and also within ourselves, as pivots of change, as Community Catalysts (see 2022 article). But we went further: we dreamed together and explored real opportunities for cooperation — all in the name of a much-needed acceleration of this movement. And we set the next steps in motion.

In January, I joined a smaller group on a study visit to Olot, at the invitation of Cooperativa Regenerativa from São Luís, as part of the CARE – Collectively Activating Regenerative Economies project. Catalonia is a pioneer in this movement, with decades of groundwork. It was a glimpse into the future, a lesson in community strength, resilience, a focus on the common good. I came back inspired — and, above all, confident in the thinking and strategy we’re developing for Rota Vicentina and its role in this region.

Back to the Caravan: this time, the group was entirely Portuguese, and the aim was to explore the work being done in the field and to share learnings. In São Luís, the theme was Re.Youthen — a testament to how a small investment in youth can spark irreversible change. Just a few years ago, young people were scarcely seen in São Luís — today, an inspiring group works and dreams alongside us. Attitudes are changing. Over dinner at Espaço Nativa, a restaurant that is a school of conscious eating, we experienced local, carefully prepared food made with deep commitment.

Montemor-o-Novo is a pioneer of collective movements, with Oficinas do Convento and Cooperativa Minga, whose history and results inspired us to Re.Activate the local economy — not through dogma, but through strategy and determination. A long communal dinner table in the square, followed by traditional cante alentejano that left our voices hoarse. Hearing the women sing, feeling the rejuvenated energy in the lyrics and melodies — the body follows and sings from the heart. Awaken!

In Mértola, we began by regenerating the body with a swim in the Guadiana River and fresh mint tea! Then we visited Horta da Malhadinha to learn about “planting water” and building a syntropic agroforestry system in an arid, discouraged land. The dinner came from that land, served in the historic center, followed by a night to refresh, digest, and celebrate.

The next morning, we returned to the Southwest for a visit to Rota Vicentina, in a beautiful forest at Monte da Estrada. Pause. Breathe. Re.Connect. With ourselves, with abundant nature, with trust in humanity. And to rethink (eco)tourism and walking as a practice of expanding awareness — of the self, of the community that belongs to each ecosystem, and of a greater universal whole that connects us all.

I was deeply moved in the final sharing circle. Because I felt that it’s in humanity — in our human nature — that I find my inspiration. I don’t know how to work any other way. And it’s hard — as a woman and as a leader. But once you feel the path under your feet, there’s no turning back.

Change is urgent. And it’s time to slow down.
Yes, it’s time to decelerate, to take a breath, and to follow the path of Regeneration — in the company of others who, like me, truly want to build a better world. Recognizing that we’ve gone too far, and that true prosperity doesn’t lie in production but in consumption — conscious, nourishing, regenerative consumption.

And ecotourism will be the only viable way to travel in the future. Because it seeks the innate, integral ecology we all depend on — not just to survive, but to truly live.