Sustainable Living

Land Stewardship & Trusts

Holding land in trust for the long term: the montado agroforestry of Herdade do Freixo do Meio, Eternal Forest's thousand-year sanctuaries, and conservation charities like MONTIS and Faia Brava. Ownership as a promise to the future.

1 Project

Projects in this focus

Land stewardship and trusts in Portugal

Buying land is the easy part; keeping a promise about it after the buyer dies is the hard one. These organisations use ownership structures (foundations, associations, conservation charities) to hold ground beyond the lifespan of any single owner.

MONTIS manages several hundred hectares of restored woodland near Vouzela. Faia Brava was the first privately protected area in the country. Fundação Terra Agora works on a stewardship model out of Tomar, FAPAS and A Rocha manage protected land in the north and the Algarve, and Herdade do Freixo do Meio holds its montado under a protective statute.

Most accept donations of land as well as money, and several take on parcels nobody else wants. See also habitat restoration, rewilding and cork oak montado. Dated activities from these projects are listed in our events calendar.

Where these projects are