It is on Frades Island where it is concentrated great part of the investments in urban-environmental re-qualification that has been held by Baía Viva Foundation – it has been putting into practice its directives and objectives and contributing with a series of actions that are providing new urban environment and more comfort to its residents and tourists as well.
On this island. , well known places such as Loreto, Paramana, Costa de Fora and Ponta de Nossa Senhora, have been undergoing transformations that can stimulate other initiatives for the strengthening of the place’s touristic vocation. The total recovery of Loreto Church, from the XVII Century, for example, has huge symbolic value in the building of the so wanted bridge that links culture and tourism. In the same way – with the re-use and remodeling of an old house that used to be the farm’s headquarters – it was inaugurated the Memory Center on Frades Island , that today is a mandatory route for anyone who is interested in learning more about the origin , fauna, flora , geographic features , customs and popular manifestations.
Because of the precarious conditions for mooring that did not encourage people to visit it in loco, there was the need for the building of a new pier for disembarkation on the island. The material that had been chosen for the construction work was carefully studied so that it could be smoothly integrated to the small square near the church. In Loreto, Baía Viva Foundation has been growing a nursery with species of Atlantic forest that aimed for the reforesting of the island and 50 thousand seedlings of coconut trees. Replanting is continuous seedlings of jequitibá, redwood , cedar, anjico, pepper tree, ipê roxo, among other species , beyond the fruit trees that are adapted to the soil , as cashew , mango, ingá, Surinam cherry , cajá, guava , among others. Now there is also a place for selection, recycling and compacting of waste.
In Paramana, Costa de Fora and Ponta de Nossa Senhora, Baía Viva Foundation has been doing a deep work of urban-environmental re-qualification, where it is highlighted the big project of sanitation, drainage and paving of many streets and squares, as well as the transforming of many grass and topsoil houses in brick houses and equipped with water, sewage and electricity lines. In Costa de Fora, there were built a medical center, a well-equipped restaurant for residents and visitors and a recreational center.
Another symbol of the historical patrimony of the island is the small church of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe, that was built by Portuguese people in Ponta de Nossa Senhora, and that was abandoned and in ruins but that is being remodeled now. The church is placed on top of a hill and there it was built a gazebo where it can be seen one of the most beautiful views of All Saints Bay. It was also built a huge staircase that leads to the church. In the same village, where it can be found one of the most beautiful beaches in the bay, Baía Viva Foundation is holding an action of re-qualification of beach equipment, by substituting the precarious installations of existing huts, for simpler and more harmonious ones that are linked to sustainability. Near these huts it is being projected the handcraft market of All Saints Bay where there will be shown the many tendencies of the popular handcraft that is produced in the bay and in the bay area. In Ponta de Nossa Senhora it is foreseen the building of a new pier , public restrooms , police department and medical center , as well as a system of nautical signaling to avoid the approach of vessels on the beach.
In Costa de Fora, because of a request of the community itself, Baía Viva Foundation held one of the most significant works in the village: the building of a long wall (around 1 km) that has the function of water contention and a passage for pedestrians, especially for children that go to school, and it solved an old difficulty that was faced by residents in the periods of rising tide, when they used to go to Paramana.
Also very important and transforming was the intervention that was held in Nova Ciranda Village, in Paramana, that took out residents of the hillside – where they lived under precarious conditions – so that they could move to new houses that were totally rebuilt after services of drainage and paving.
