Syntropic Farming

Syntropic agriculture plants dense, layered systems and manages them by pruning, the cuttings feed the soil, and the planting is designed to move through successive stages the way a forest does. It came from Brazil, via Ernst Götsch, and it is being adapted to a Mediterranean climate that is far drier than the one it was developed in.

Terra Sintrópica works in Mértola, on some of the driest land in the Alentejo, which makes it a useful test of whether the method travels.

Courses and demonstration plots are central to how the method is shared here. The agroforestry and regenerative agriculture focuses sit closest to it. Dated activities from these projects are listed in our events calendar.