News

What was reported

• Ecosystems

  ARDITI marks ten years of marine monitoring off Porto Santo

  An autonomous survey vessel and scientific divers are mapping seabeds that have never been charted in high resolution.

  7 July 2026MadeiraIFCN

• Ecosystems

  Vale Carapito becomes Portugal's fifth Private Protected Area

  A 48-hectare valley in Sabugal, bought by an NGO in 2020, has just joined a very short national list.

  6 July 2026CentroRewilding Portugal

• Ecosystems

  Vale Carapito becomes Portugal's fifth Private Protected Area

  A 48-hectare valley in Sabugal has just become only the fifth site of its kind in the whole country.

  6 July 2026CentroRewilding Portugal

• Ecosystems

  Madeira tightens fire prevention rules amid heat warning

  A key mountain road in Madeira stays shut as authorities extend fire warnings into next week.

  5 July 2026MadeiraIFCN

• Ecosystems

  Canadian expert finds flaws in Barroso lithium mine air studies

  A Canadian air quality specialist says the data behind the mine's approval simply cannot answer the key question.

  3 July 2026NorteUnidos em Defesa de Covas do Barroso

• Ecosystems

  Portuguese birds struggle to survive amid extreme heatwaves

  Some chicks leap from their nests to escape the heat, only to die on the ground below.

  3 July 2026AlentejoLPN

• Ecosystems

  Porto and Matosinhos plan €8.9m clean-up of Riguinha stream

  Hundreds of illegal sewage connections have been fouling two Porto-area beaches for years.

  3 July 2026NorteAdEPorto

• Ecosystems

  Greenpeace report says Portugal still reacts rather than prevents wildfires

  A study spanning over 80 years of Portuguese wildfire data points to the same unresolved pattern repeating since 2003.

  2 July 2026

• Ecosystems

  Talk on birds of Leiria district set for Saturday

  Leiria ranks fourth nationally for bird diversity, and one of Portugal's top ornithologists is coming to explain why.

  2 July 2026Centro

• Ecosystems

  Portugal to widen carbon market to new forestry projects

  The environment minister says approval of new forest credit methodologies is coming soon, but a wider expansion is already in the works.

  1 July 2026ADENE

• Ecosystems

  Madeira balances snail conservation success with grazing debate

  Snails once thought extinct for over a century are now being reintroduced by the thousand on a Madeiran island.

  1 July 2026MadeiraIFCN

• Ecosystems

  Largest known greater mouse-eared bat roost found at Alqueva

  An old water mine in Alentejo turned out to hide a colony of more than 10,000 bats.

  1 July 2026AlentejoICNF

• Ecosystems

  Yellow-legged gull chicks fill wildlife centre in southern Portugal

  Rooftop nests and first flights are filling a wildlife recovery centre in Santo André with young gulls.

  1 July 2026AlentejoICNF

• Ecosystems

  NGOs urge joint Portugal-Spain plan to protect Iberian wolf

  More than 50 groups say the same wolf population is protected on one side of the border and huntable on the other.

  30 June 2026Rewilding Portugal

• Ecosystems

  Mealhada hosts international seminar on firefly conservation

  Experts from Portugal and abroad gather in the Bussaco forest for a day dedicated to a glowing insect.

  30 June 2026CentroMata Nacional do Bussaco

• Ecosystems

  Otter killed by traffic becomes symbol at Portuguese reserve

  An otter that once inspired a conservation project at a Portuguese reserve is now its permanent, taxidermied exhibit.

  29 June 2026CentroGEOTA

• Ecosystems

  Portugal's little bustard population down 90% since 2006

  Just 1,736 male little bustards remain in Portugal's plains, down from levels recorded two decades ago.

  26 June 2026AlentejoGEOTA

• Ecosystems

  Trás-os-Montes launches digital tool to guide wildfire prevention

  Nine municipalities in Bragança district are rolling out a system built with a roughly one-million-euro budget.

  25 June 2026Norte

• Ecosystems

  Funchal museum launches first Madeira butterfly biodiversity guide

  A new bilingual guide puts Madeira's butterflies under the spotlight at the island's Natural History Museum.

  25 June 2026Madeira

• Ecosystems

  Reader's unusual photo turns out to be a young Kentish plover

  A reader spotted an odd bird among familiar plovers at a Portuguese reserve and asked experts to explain it.

  25 June 2026NorteSPEA

• Ecosystems

  Natura 2000 areas burn less than rest of Portugal, study finds

  WWF Portugal compared five years of wildfire data inside and outside protected conservation zones.

  24 June 2026Just a Change

• Ecosystems

  Protected Natura 2000 zones burn half as much, WWF finds

  Fires burned 6.1% of land outside protected Natura 2000 zones but only 2.9% inside them.

  24 June 2026ICNF

• Ecosystems

  LPN urges human-lynx coexistence focus in new conservation plan

  Environmental group LPN weighs in as public consultation closes on Portugal's next lynx recovery strategy.

  23 June 2026LPN

• Ecosystems

  Iberian lynx recovery plan puts focus on coexistence with communities

  The Iberian lynx was once the world's most endangered feline, but saving it now means winning over its human neighbours.

  22 June 2026LPN

• Ecosystems

  European beaver confirmed back in Portugal after 500 years

  Gnaw marks and camera-trap images near the Tormes river revealed something Portugal had not seen in half a millennium.

  22 June 2026NorteRewilding Portugal

• Ecosystems

  Experts say possible El Niño return could worsen Portugal's extreme weather

  The World Meteorological Organisation puts the odds of a new El Niño episode this summer at 80%.

  22 June 2026ZERO

• Ecosystems

  Zero opposes two new Guadiana tributary dams near Alqueva

  An environmental group wants two dam tenders halted before, it warns, expectations and public money become impossible to reverse.

  20 June 2026AlentejoZERO

• Ecosystems

  Portugal raises turtle dove hunting quota to 15,000 birds

  Four years after a hunting ban meant to save a bird that lost 80% of its population, Portugal is loosening the rules again.

  19 June 2026LPN

• Ecosystems

  Former mining site becomes wetland haven in Côa valley

  Water surface at a former mining site in the Côa valley has nearly doubled in four years, drawing otters, black storks and rare terrapins.

  19 June 2026CentroRewilding Portugal

• Ecosystems

  Public consultation opens on Serra da Estrela conservation plan

  Revised after two major wildfires, the plan covers nearly 90,000 hectares around Portugal's highest peak.

  19 June 2026CentroICNF