The Territorial and Environmental Studies and Planning Group (GEOTA) has already planted 1 million indigenous trees since 2019, through the Renature reforestation projects that are taking place in Serra de Monchique, Serra da Estrela Natural Park and the Leiria National Forest .
«These projects are born from the need to reforest burned areas, to support affected local communities to recover from the destruction caused by fires and to increase the resilience of the forest so that the same thing does not happen again», explains GEOTA.
Since 2010, more than 1,5 million hectares have burned in Portugal, placing the country as the most affected by fires in Europe in the XNUMXst century.
Taking into account that around 98% of the forest is private or community-owned, the starting point was to “involve local communities that own and inhabit the territory in collaborative models with a view to reforesting burnt areas”.
Through Renature projects, around 700 landowners are already being supported in an intervention area of 3 thousand hectares.
According to Isabel Moura, president of GEOTA, «it is urgent to support and train local communities so that they are able to recover the ecological and economic value of the forest. We understand that the importance of the forest comes mainly from the services it offers at an ecological, social and economic level. The active management of the forest by local communities must be a national goal».
Miguel Jerónimo, coordinator of the Renature projects, considers that «we cannot wait for the State to solve all forest management problems. We went from words to action by carrying out reforestation projects in several regions. We have professional teams on the ground every day recovering and reforesting burned areas».
With the aim of changing the landscape with species more resilient to fire, oaks, cork oaks, strawberry trees, chestnut trees, maritime pine and other emblematic species such as the Monchique oak, which only occurs in the Serra de Monchique and basin of the river Mira and which is located critically endangered according to the Red List of Vascular Flora of Mainland Portugal.
To continue the work started in 2019, GEOTA has set the objective of planting another 2 million trees by 2027. To achieve this it will need donations from civil society and companies, which is why it launched a first campaign through crowdfunding, at European level, so that everyone can contribute directly to the reforestation of burned areas, making it possible to plant the first 250 thousand trees.
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