Ecoaldeia Silverto

Ecoaldeia Silverto is a rural co-housing and regenerative agroforestry initiative located on 1.5 hectares of land near Paredes de Coura, in the green hills of northern Portugal's Minho region. At its centre stands a stone house, partly renovated and inhabited, surrounded by land being transformed into a food forest — trees establishing, soil improving, and biodiversity gradually returning. The project embraces an unfinished, evolving approach: it is explicitly a work in progress, shaped through learning, adjustment, and long-term intention rather than a fixed blueprint. Silverto practises regenerative agroforestry, working with natural systems to increase the resilience and diversity of the land over time. Beyond its own boundaries, it is part of a wider network of neighbouring initiatives and like-minded people across northern Portugal seeking a different relationship with land, work, and community. The project was co-founded around 2019 by Mathijs de Bruin, a serial social entrepreneur also involved in other ventures such as Sol Nascente and ipfs-search.com, together with Irene Campainha, described as an eco-activist and systems architect. Since its founding, the project has formalised into a cooperative, Cooperativa Ecoaldeia Silverto, and is forming a small international community of two to four households who will share in the life and work of the land. Silverto welcomes guests and volunteers who wish to learn alongside the residents, contribute meaningfully to the food forest and house renovation, and experience life at the edge of a forest. It appeals to people who are curious, self-directed, and drawn to a modest, intentional way of living close to nature, community, and regenerative practice.