Cork Oak & Montado

The montado is a made landscape that behaves like a wild one: widely spaced cork and holm oaks over pasture and cereal, grazed by pigs, sheep and cattle, harvested for cork every nine years. It supports a species richness closer to a savanna than to a plantation, and Portugal holds the largest area of it in the world.

It is also under pressure, from ageing trees, from drought, and from the arithmetic that makes eucalyptus pay faster. Herdade do Freixo do Meio is among the estates keeping it working rather than picturesque.

Cork is harvested without felling the tree, which is what makes the whole system possible. See also the agroforestry and habitat restoration focuses. Dated activities from these projects are listed in our events calendar.