Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles

Gonçalo Pereira Ribeiro Telles (25 May 1922 – 11 November 2020) was a Portuguese politician and landscape architect. He was born and died in Lisbon.

He was a founder of the People's Monarchist Party in 1974, and led it until 1992, when he left the party. In 1993 co-founded and presided the ecologist movement party Movimento Partido da Terra, today called MPT – Partido da Terra.

He was also Minister for Quality of Life in the Democratic Alliance government, and one of the first Portuguese politicians to call attention to ecological problems, having an influence far beyond the tiny size of the parties he led.

From 1971 to 1974 he also directed, as a landscape architect, the Biophysical planning and Green Spaces Sector of the Housing Development Fund.

The most recognized project of his career is the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's garden, which he signed with António Viana Barreto and which earned him, ex aequo, the Valmor Prize of 1975.

Also in the capital, it is worth mentioning the set of projects that conceived, between 1998 and 2002, at the request of the City Council, the main and secondary green structures of the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon, and which are now in different stages of implementation: the Alcântara Valley and Radial de Benfica, the Chelas Valley, the Peripheral Park, the Monsanto Green Corridor and the Integration into the Main Green Structure of Lisbon of the Eastern and Western Riverside Zone.

As a member in the Assembly of the Republic he had responsibilities in the proposals of the Law of Bases of the Environment, the Law of Regionalization, the Conditioning Law of the Planting of Eucalyptus, the Law of Wastelands, the Hunting Law, and the Environmental Impact Law.

In 1984, after leaving the government, he founded the Alfacinha Movement, with which he presented himself candidate for the City Council of Lisbon, winning a seat as councillor.

In 1985, he returned to the Assembly of the Republic, now as an independent member, elected on the lists of the Socialist Party (PS).

In 1993, he founded the Earth Party Movement, whose presidency he abandoned in 2007.

In 2010, integrating the Citizenship and Marriage Platform, he publicly spoke out against same-sex marriage, legalized at the time in Portugal.

In 2009 and 2013, he supported the candidacy headed by António Costa in the municipal elections for the Municipality of Lisbon.

In 2016, at the IndieLisboa film festival, the documentary A Vossa Terra - landscapes of Gonçalo Ribeiro Teles, by director João Mário Grilo, was presented.

Commendations On 31 October 1969, by president Américo Tomás, the rank of Officer of the Ancient, Most Noble and Enlightened Military Order of Saint James of the Sword, of the Scientific, Literary and Artistic Merit

On 6 April 1988, by president Mário Soares, the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Christ

On 10 June 1990, by president Mário Soares, the Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty

On 25 May 2017, by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry