On 16–17 May 2025, the 4th edition of the Seminários Caminhados will take place, an initiative that combines academic reflection with the experience of walking in direct contact with the landscape.

The event will feature contributions from:

Amelia Moreira-Frazão (CRIA – NOVA FCSH)
José Eduardo Reis (UTAD)
Manuel Lopes Rodrigues (European ICCA Consortium)
Maria Patrício (ESA-IPB)

Registration
Registration can be completed here.

The registration fee covers participation on both days and includes:

personal accident insurance
lunch/picnic on 17 May
The number of participants is limited to 25.

Practical Information
Participants should bring:

clothing and footwear suitable for walking
a water bottle (water can be collected from the springs in Rio Caldo)
Dinner on 16 May and accommodation are the responsibility of the participants.

Background
The anthropisation of nature, landscapes, trees and living space has been a continuous process throughout history, visible in many of the territories that surround us. Since early times, this human presence has left persistent traces — some evident, others more subtle — revealing different forms of appropriation, transformation and relationship with the environment.

Historical records document this trajectory, as well as attempts to regulate, contain or restore transformed landscapes. Between regulatory initiatives and expressed intentions, the human relationship with the natural environment has oscillated between assertive appropriation and, at times hesitant, efforts at preservation. Each mark on the territory thus stands as testimony to the social, cultural and economic forces projected onto reality.

Beyond different ontological and ideological perspectives, the modern relationship between human beings and nature has often been marked by a divide between the material world and the desire for transcendence. Within this framework, humans position themselves as masters of their gardens and possessors of nature, deepening, in many situations, a Cartesian path of appropriation, domination and exploitation of the environment.

This asymmetrical regime of relations tends to transform the natural world into a manipulable horizon, paradoxically leading to a further distancing of humans from the environment that sustains them. In this process, nature — and trees in particular — is frequently desacralised, reduced to a resource or an object of intervention.

Programme
The full programme can be consulted here.