News

What was reported

• Ecosystems

  Madeira towns urged to dim lights for rare seabird's first flight

  Four Madeira councils are asked to switch off outdoor lights for a few hours on Sunday night, for the sake of a rare bird.

  27 September 2026MadeiraSPEA

• Ecosystems

  Esposende opens new 10-hectare riverside city park

  A court ruling stripped nearly 8 hectares from the project's planned land before the ribbon was even cut.

  26 September 2026NorteICNF

• Ecosystems

  Six Médio Tejo municipalities receive tractors for fuel management

  Each council must clear at least 80 kilometres of tracks a year under a five-year equipment loan scheme.

  26 September 2026CentroICNF

• Ecosystems

  Lagoa trials underwater vacuum removal of invasive algae at Carvoeiro

  For five days in Carvoeiro, the alga will be sucked out of the sea itself rather than raked off the sand.

  25 September 2026Algarve

• Ecosystems

  Coruche calls for volunteers to clean up River Sorraia

  Volunteers are being called to the banks of the Sorraia to pull plastic out of the water this Saturday.

  25 September 2026Alentejo

• Ecosystems

  TERRA lab maps EU priority areas for freshwater restoration

  A new index ranks European rivers and wetlands by how much restoring them could actually pay off.

  25 September 2026

• Ecosystems

  Ponte de Lima buys 12 hectares to expand protected wetland area

  The municipality paid over €181,000 for land bordering a protected lagoon landscape, with EU funds covering nearly half.

  25 September 2026Norte

• Ecosystems

  Opinion piece calls for tailored, place-based management of Portugal's montado

  A regenerative planning expert says decades of one-size-fits-all management may be part of why the montado is declining.

  25 September 2026AlentejoIPR

• Ecosystems

  E-Redes on trial over illegal felling of 63 cork oaks

  Prosecutors say the company had permission to cut eight cork oaks but felled dozens more.

  24 September 2026NorteICNF

• Ecosystems

  Coimbra region to spend €2.6m fighting invasive water plant

  The invasive plant has already spread to four municipalities in the Coimbra region, harming rivers used for leisure and boating.

  24 September 2026CentroICNF

• Ecosystems

  Portugal pledges €75 million for ocean observation alliance

  The pledge was unveiled at a New York summit co-hosted by Ursula von der Leyen and Canada's Mark Carney.

  24 September 2026

• Ecosystems

  Underwater clean-up planned for Ferragudo beach on 26 September

  Volunteers will dive into the sea off Ferragudo to pull litter from the seabed by hand.

  23 September 2026AlgarveCCMAR

• Ecosystems

  Swift and swallow project Andorin joins forces with SPEA-Birdlife

  Four years of citizen-science work have mapped tens of thousands of nests across Portugal, but the birds' shelters remain largely unprotected.

  23 September 2026NorteAssociação Vita Nativa

• Ecosystems

  Single tooth can reveal Iberian wolf's weight and sex

  Researchers examined 78 specimens from Portuguese museum collections to test what one molar can tell us.

  23 September 2026ICNF

• Ecosystems

  Tavira holds event on Barrocais landscape protection

  University students spent a school year studying how to protect this Algarve landscape, and now hand over their findings.

  23 September 2026Algarve

• Ecosystems

  Verdelhos commons showcased as maritime pine management model

  Four years after a wildfire, one commons in Serra da Estrela is turning pine regrowth into jobs and revenue.

  22 September 2026Centro

• Ecosystems

  Portugal launches national plan against invasive Asian seaweed

  The seaweed has already reached eight of the nine Azorean islands and stretches of the mainland coast.

  22 September 2026

• Ecosystems

  Portugal formalises conservation rules for Sado Estuary

  Portugal has been fined daily by the EU's top court over decades of delay in protecting dozens of natural areas.

  22 September 2026AlentejoICNF

• Ecosystems

  Porto Moniz council holds seabed clean-up at harbour

  Firefighters, GNR, an aquarium and local schoolchildren joined forces at a Madeira harbour for one purpose.

  22 September 2026Madeira

• Ecosystems

  Coimbra approves €1.36m riverbank renaturalisation project

  Coimbra's council signed off on a four-year plan covering 24 hectares of riverbank and hundreds of new trees.

  21 September 2026Centro

• Ecosystems

  Portugal revises Espichel-Odeceixe coastal plan after beach access checks

  A 45km stretch of Grândola coastline, inspected last year, triggered a rethink of beach access rules from Cabo Espichel to Odeceixe.

  20 September 2026AlentejoICNF

• Ecosystems

  Opinion piece calls for landscape-based approach to forests

  A landscape architect argues Portugal keeps treating forest fires as a summer problem, not a decades-old one.

  20 September 2026GEOTA

• Ecosystems

  Pombal secures €2.7 million to repair storm-hit waterways

  Twenty-one emergency interventions later, Pombal has lined up fresh funding to tackle storm-damaged rivers.

  19 September 2026Centro

• Ecosystems

  Dozens protest in Águeda against eucalyptus wildfire risk

  Activists walked six kilometres through Águeda's forests to make a point about eucalyptus plantations and fire risk.

  19 September 2026CentroICNF

• Ecosystems

  Pombal fits 11 trees with sustainability information tags

  One lime tree in Pombal's Jardim das Tílias can supply 210 days of oxygen a year for a single person.

  18 September 2026CentroICNF

• Ecosystems

  River group calls for freeze on new Tejo dams and weirs

  A river conservation group wants dozens of dam and weir projects on Portugal's Tejo frozen over one shared problem.

  18 September 2026CentroZERO

• Ecosystems

  Quercus urges APA to stand firm on Grândola beach access

  A luxury resort developer reportedly threatened to sue Portugal's environment agency over beach parking spaces.

  17 September 2026Alentejo

• Ecosystems

  Braga unveils €875,000 renaturalisation of River Este

  Concrete walls along a Braga riverbank have been swapped for granite, timber and native plants after months of works.

  17 September 2026Norte

• Ecosystems

  Coimbra region warns water hyacinth contract may lapse

  A contract keeping an invasive plant in check on Coimbra's rivers runs out this year, with no word yet from regulators.

  17 September 2026Centro

• Ecosystems

  Government hands 15 tractors to northern municipalities for fire prevention

  The tractors are part of a 285-machine rollout backed by a €50 million EU-funded package.

  17 September 2026NorteICNF