News

What was reported

• Ecosystems

  Scientists urge recognition of new Iberian rabbit species facing extinction

  Twelve researchers say Portugal's rabbit is not a subspecies at all, but a separate lineage isolated for two million years.

  16 July 2026

• Ecosystems

  WWF Portugal calls for stronger nature restoration plan

  Only 90 of 406 measures in Portugal's nature restoration plan have a cost estimate attached, WWF warns.

  16 July 2026ICNF

• Ecosystems

  WWF Portugal criticises funding gaps in nature restoration plan

  Only 90 of 406 measures in Portugal's nature restoration plan come with a price tag, WWF warns.

  16 July 2026ICNF

• Ecosystems

  Study finds post-festival beach cleanups fail to stop waste build-up

  Researchers tracked five years of a beach music festival and counted over 26,000 pieces of waste, most of it plastic.

  16 July 2026Centro

• Ecosystems

  José Moreira da Silva, guardian of Portugal's first national park, remembered

  A 1937 forestry student's thesis planted the seed for Portugal's only national park, decades before it opened.

  16 July 2026NorteLPN

• Ecosystems

  Public consultation opens on Portugal's nature restoration plan

  Portugal opens a consultation running until August 2026 on how it plans to meet EU-mandated restoration targets.

  15 July 2026

• Ecosystems

  PS proposes chestnut-led forest conversion in Serra de São Mamede

  Land handed over as compensation for a paper mill's expansion could reshape 190 hectares of Alentejo forest.

  15 July 2026AlentejoICNF

• Ecosystems

  European Climate Pact urges Portuguese councils to act on wildfires

  European Climate Pact ambassadors want Portugal's town halls at the front line of wildfire protection.

  15 July 2026Norte

• Ecosystems

  Rescued eagle owl dies after 51-hour delay reaching care centre

  A photographer says he handed the injured bird to the GNR himself, water and all, on a Sunday afternoon.

  15 July 2026AlentejoICNF

• Ecosystems

  NGOs warn renewables acceleration plan threatens endangered species

  Conservationists say 455,000 hectares earmarked for solar and wind overlap habitats of the Iberian lynx and other endangered species.

  14 July 2026Rewilding Portugal

• Ecosystems

  Portugal's 2025 wildfires nearly exhaust 2030 burnt-area limit

  Zero says Portugal has used up almost all the burnt-area allowance meant to last until 2030, with five years still left.

  14 July 2026ZERO

• Ecosystems

  ICNF says it cannot fine alert-period rule breaches in Gerês

  The nature institute says enforcing fire-alert rules at a popular Gerês lagoon site is someone else's job.

  13 July 2026NorteICNF

• Ecosystems

  JPP party discusses light pollution study with SPEA in Madeira

  Bird conservation experts warned Madeira's lawmakers about the toll excessive night lighting takes on endemic seabirds.

  13 July 2026MadeiraSPEA

• Ecosystems

  GEOTA secures €420,000 to restore Portuguese rivers

  An international donor is putting €420,000 behind an effort to tear down obsolete barriers on Portugal's rivers.

  13 July 2026GEOTA

• Ecosystems

  Estate claims ownership of five Arrábida beaches in court

  A 19th-century royal decree and a queen's signature are at the centre of a fight over five beaches near Setúbal.

  13 July 2026LisbonQuinta da Comenda

• Ecosystems

  A year on, Serra do Alvão slowly heals after huge wildfire

  Shepherds, hoteliers and mayors describe how the Alvão landscape is turning green again, one year after the flames came closest yet.

  12 July 2026NorteICNF

• Ecosystems

  Environmental group demands answers over Tour of Portugal route through Gerês

  An environmental group wants to know why cyclists and a publicity caravan will pass through one of Gerês's most strictly protected reserves.

  11 July 2026NorteZERO

• Ecosystems

  Portugal's oldest nature reserve burns again after nine years

  A rhododendron sanctuary that survived since the Miocene has burned twice in under ten years.

  9 July 2026CentroLPN

• Ecosystems

  Rehabilitated white storks released back into Estarreja wetlands

  A heatwave left more storks injured than usual, and a hundred children will watch them fly free again.

  9 July 2026CentroParque Biológico de Gaia

• Ecosystems

  Quercus flags new eucalyptus plantings in fire-hit Águeda

  A landowner already devastated by fire last September now watches eucalyptus replanted right beside his home.

  9 July 2026CentroICNF

• Ecosystems

  Sesimbra mayor calls for mandatory ICNF approval on tree felling

  Sesimbra's mayor says the council could do nothing to stop the felling of 2,000 tonnes of pines near a protected lagoon.

  8 July 2026LisbonICNF

• Ecosystems

  Portugal still lacks a plan to bring back the bearded vulture

  A 2026 Iberian study of the bearded vulture's movements left Portugal out entirely — for a telling reason.

  8 July 2026Rewilding Portugal

• Ecosystems

  Researchers track weasels and polecats near Lisbon

  Two researchers spend the summer setting camera traps in Arrábida to track a carnivore rarely documented in the region.

  7 July 2026LisbonICNF

• Ecosystems

  Azores channelled over €45 million into nature conservation via EU fund

  A training session in Terceira became the stage for the Azores government to detail years of environmental spending and staffing plans.

  7 July 2026AzoresReservas da Biosfera de Portugal

• 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