Broto de bambu
Broto de Bambu is a specialised bamboo nursery and education centre at Bambuparque, Herdade da Fonte, in Alentejo. It's recognised as Europe…
Agroforestry
Trees and farming as one system: Herdade do Freixo do Meio's montado agroforestry is a national reference, and projects across the country are following. Old wisdom, new urgency.
Projects in this focus
REA Alentejo
Led by ADPM (Associação para a Defesa do Património de Mértola), REA Alentejo develops and tests a replicable model for restoring degraded s…
Viveiro Campesino
A small family-run nursery near Marvão, Portugal, growing reforestation, fruit and medicinal plants with regenerative agriculture techniques…
Wild Forest Garden
A registered NGO in southern Alentejo, Wild Forest Garden creates biodiverse forest gardens using syntropic agriculture and no-dig methods, …
Agroforestry in Portugal
Portugal has practised agroforestry for centuries without calling it that. The montado (cork oaks and holm oaks over grazing and cereal) is one of the oldest agroforestry systems in Europe, and it is the reference point for most of the newer work here.
Herdade do Freixo do Meio farms the montado as an integrated system and is widely cited as a national example. Around it, projects are planting tree lines into arable fields, alley-cropping, and adding fruit and nut layers to grazing land.
The economics are slow (trees pay late), so projects often pair it with activities that pay sooner. See also the cork oak and montado, syntropic farming and holistic grazing focuses. Dated activities from these projects are listed in our events calendar.