New project will plant 100 hectares of Montado in Serra do Caldeirão

The Plantar Montado project, which aims to restore, recover and reforest 100 hectares of degraded areas in Serra do Caldeirão, will move forward, in an initiative of ANP|WWF, in partnership with the Municipality of Tavira and the Association of Forestry Producers of Serra do Caldeirão .

The new Plantar Montado project is an initiative financed by REACT funds (EU-Compete 2020), which «returns nature to the Serra do Caldeirão and increases the resilience of this landscape», explains Associação Natureza Portugal/WWF.

This project to combat desertification, worth 438 thousand euros, lasts for 18 months, from October 2022 to March 2024.

Similar to what this non-governmental environmental organization (ONGA) has already done in the region, this project aims at «the rehabilitation and installation of cork oak and holm oak groves in Serra do Caldeirão», more specifically in the parish of Cachopo, municipality of Tavira, «under conditions of sustainability that guarantee the protection and rehabilitation of the soil, with greater fixation of carbon and nutrients, the conservation of water lines and riparian galleries, and the recovery of ecosystems and natural habitats».

To this end, adds the ANP|WWF, «until March 2024, the installation of tree stands in mosaic with shrubby areas, natural pastures and riparian galleries will be promoted».

“After the success of our plant water project, we feel the need to continue the ecological restoration projects in this area of ​​the country and to expand the scale of their implementation. It is essential that we continue to work in close partnership with associations, authorities and local communities to recover the traditional productive potential of Serra do Caldeirão, as a way of combating desertification and rehabilitating this fragile territory», says Ruben Rocha, Water coordinator at ANP |WWF.

The Plantar Montado, which corresponds to one of the priority intervention areas, (site of the Natura 2000 network in Caldeirão) has as its essential objectives the regeneration and conservation of soils and the rehabilitation and conservation of ecosystems and habitats.

«It will use solutions based on Nature, with reinforcement at the level of trees, shrubs and herbs, and using organic matter from pruning and plant debris for natural fertilization, in a set of fundamental techniques for this area strongly affected by desertification, rural fires and by torrential erosion».

This project is funded as part of the European Union response to the Covid-19 pandemic, with EU funding – REACT-EU, through the COMPETE 2020 Operational Program.

The initiative to restore the Serra do Caldeirão landscape began in 2007 with an ecological restoration project in Ribeira do Vascão, in the Guadiana river basin, later escalating to the Plantar Água project (2019-2022), which enabled the restoration of 100 hectares of the Serra affected by the fires, and for the Plantar Água – Semear Futuro project (2022-2024), which will maintain and expand this restoration by another 20ha.