ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the environmental education and awareness in Portugal is developing and environmental problems. The CNA was responsible for the first genuine attempts at environmental education in Portugal and for producing several important publications on environmental issues. Protection of the environment faces the problems of conservation within a context of rapid and non-sustainable economic growth that pays scant attention to environmental costs. One of the most critical environmental issues within Portugal concerns the management of domestic waste. Up until the mid-1990s there were more than 300 dumpsites in Portugal which were responsible for disposing of nearly 30% of solid domestic waste. Arguably the most important environmental problem in Portugal at the present moment is the lack of any co-ordinate spatial management of environmental issues by government. Many of the environmental problems in Portugal either result from, or are exacerbated by, the decisions of Central Government.
