BLC3 – Campus de Tecnologia e Inovação
BLC3 is a non-profit research and innovation association based in Oliveira do Hospital, with hubs in Alfândega da Fé and Ourique, focused on…
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
SerQ – Centro de Inovação e Competências da Floresta
SerQ is a scientific and technological association based in Sertã that drives research, development and innovation for the forestry and wood…
Bee Serra da Estrela
Bee Serra da Estrela is a regenerative project in Manteigas that combines syntropic agriculture, forest restoration and nature-based tourism…
Carvalhal (RH Florestal)
Carvalhal is a 220-hectare forest property near Penha Garcia, Idanha-a-Nova, managed by RH Florestal since 2019, combining cork oak, holm oa…
Idanha-à-Vida
Idanha-à-Vida is a large-scale ecological, social and cultural regeneration project covering 1,600 hectares around the historic village of I…
EcoAtivo
EcoAtivo is a nature protection and conservation association in Fundão that works to improve the relationship between people and the environ…
Associação Cabeço Santo
Associação Cabeço Santo is a Portuguese environmental NGO working to restore degraded landscapes on the western slopes of the Serra do Caram…
Faia Brava – Associação de Conservação da Natureza
Faia Brava - Associação de Conservação da Natureza is a Portuguese environmental NGO with more than 25 years of history, and a pioneer in th…
Reflorestar Portugal
A non-profit NGO working on ecological regeneration, biodiverse reforestation and agroforestry across Portugal, helping communities restore …
Terra Agora
Fundação Terra Agora is a Portuguese public-interest foundation working on a land stewardship model in which donated land is permanently pro…
Eternal Forest
Eternal Forest is a long-term art and ecology project founded in 2018 by artist and poet Evgenia Emets, working towards a global network of …
Rewilding Portugal
Rewilding Portugal is a non-profit association working to make Portugal a wilder place by restoring ecosystems and wildlife corridors, with …
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.