FUTURO – Projeto das 100.000 Árvores na Área Metropolitana do Porto

FUTURO is a collaborative project to create and care for native urban forest in the Porto Metropolitan Area. It began in 2011 within the Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (CRE.Porto), and the Environmental Studies Group at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Porto) runs it today. The original target was 100,000 native trees by 2018, and the project has since passed it. By July 2017 it had carried out 593 actions with more than 350 organisations and thousands of citizens. Most of the work happens on 246 intervention plots covering 185 hectares, where 98,029 native trees had been installed at that point. The five-year review counted 11,330 voluntary participations and 36,747 hours of volunteer work. It also counted more than 110,000 hours of professional work. Planting is only the first step. Monitoring campaigns have followed the plots since 2014. The 2019 campaign covered 17 plots in 12 municipalities and found survival rates of 79–86% in areas five years after planting. Since late 2016 a maintenance programme, first supported by Lipor, has looked after the plots. By July 2017 it had carried out 76 operations and logged 1,174 hours of work on 15 hectares. Everyone can take part. Volunteers join planting days and invasive-species control actions, such as the mornings organised in Gondomar and in the Serra de Santa Justa. Schools, companies and municipalities such as Maia and Valongo host or organise planting actions. A volunteer bank is open for sign-ups. The project also runs the Rota das Árvores do Porto, guided tree walks of up to 30 people in places such as the Jardim da Cordoaria and the Parque das Virtudes. FUTURO has been recognised with the Yves Rocher Foundation's 'Terre de Femmes' prize (2013), and it was presented at the 9th Global Meeting of the Regional Centres of Expertise in Japan in 2014.