Quercus honours naturalist Miguel Dantas da Gama and Baraçal parish council with 2026 award

Quercus, Portugal's national nature conservation association, marks its 41st anniversary on Saturday 31 October with a dinner for members and guests, where the 2026 Quercus Award will be presented. The individual prize goes to Miguel Dantas da Gama, an engineer turned naturalist who helped found both Quercus and FAPAS and has devoted his career to wildlife and the Peneda-Gerês National Park. The collective prize goes to the Baraçal parish council in Sabugal, a community of about 200 voters that has avoided herbicides in public spaces for over twenty years and also generates solar power, electrifies its fleet and plants drought-resistant species. Quercus's president says both show change can grow from a small scale.