Articles
Our own writing on sustainable living in Portugal — and the interviews behind the projects in the catalogue.
Alentejo opens 50 free walks and asks who will look after the paths
On 31 October and 1 November, town councils across the Alentejo will lead 50 free guided walks, one of which may end with a telescope while another doesn’t start until after dark. Two days earlier, the organisers meet in Gavião to discuss who keeps 2,480 km of footpaths open for the other 363 days.
Arroios opens 12 of its 44 flowerbeds to resident gardeners
Lisbon’s Arroios parish is testing whether residents will tend small public green spaces, starting with 12 sites. It’s also where Cultiva, the organic garden the army cleared from a Graça school in September, plans to start again.
Forest Keepers invites 16 teenagers to two days in an Alentejo forest
If you’re 16 to 19 and curious about the natural world, there’s a free weekend in the montado near Montemor-o-Novo waiting in November. Applications close on Friday, and the two days will be filmed for a short documentary.
Volunteers repaired 10 homes in Lagoa and Castro Marim this summer
Lagoa and Castro Marim paid for the works and the charity Just a Change supplied the labour, with about 30 volunteers on the Castro Marim sites alone. In Funchal, where families were handed the money instead, the association paying it out says builders are expensive and hard to find.
Portugal faces a 2030 food waste target. Households are the challenge
New Eurostat figures put Portuguese households at the top of the EU’s food waste table. A binding EU target for 2030 is the bigger story.
Algarve dam plan is open for public comment until 12 October
A proposed reservoir on the Foupana stream would add water to the eastern Algarve's supply. The environmental study is public, and anyone who wants to comment has until 12 October.
Portugal and 17 other EU countries miss the right-to-repair deadline
Portugal is one of 18 EU countries facing EU legal action over new repair rules. While the paperwork catches up, volunteers are teaching people to fix things themselves.
Two Portuguese health units start prescribing walks and classes
From October, family doctors near Porto can refer patients to exercise classes and cultural activities in much the way they prescribe medicine. In Barcelos, a trial is adding walks, aqua aerobics and two therapy dogs to treatment for depression.
Portugal counts its bottles, but not the people returning them
Volta is beating its collection target. That target was revised down three weeks after the scheme started, and consumer behaviour wasn't the reason.
Portugal has 248,000 empty homes in liveable condition
Portugal counted 723,715 vacant dwellings in 2021, and around 248,000 of them are in good condition. Councils in Coimbra, Santa Cruz and Braga are each trying a different way to bring buildings back.
Portugal after dark: the hidden world of moths
Grow lists 90 off-grid communities to visit, stay or work at
He booked the first flight he saw – a flight to Faro
LPN bought 1,800 hectares of Castro Verde to save its birds
LPN seeks new income amid EU conservation funding uncertainty
Learning from the masters in old building techniques
The forgotten mixture that made his adobe stronger
Biggest Mini Forest turns 3x3 metre plots into food forests
Plot Zero: the first mini food forest, and what it changed
A women's collective teaches earth building in the Alentejo
An earth house can live anywhere, if it is designed consciously
Ekōgaio is helping regenerate Portuguese landscapes from its hub near Tomar
Ekōgaio plants more than 10,000 trees on municipal land in Crato
You are not buying a house, you are buying a village
The Depth behind the Dream