Terra Sintrópica is a community-driven regenerative initiative in Mértola, Alentejo, restoring semi-arid ecosystems through syntropic agroforestry and local food systems. It runs three core programmes — CARES, PREC, and community education — bridging land regeneration with everyday community life.
Terra Sintrópica is a living laboratory of ecological transition based in Mértola, within the Natural Park of the Vale do Guadiana in southern Portugal. Founded in 2018, the association responds to the region's severe climate challenges — exhausted soils, water scarcity, rural abandonment, and accelerating desertification — not by resisting these forces, but by regenerating land and community from within.
The organisation operates at the intersection of agroecology, community building, local food systems, and interdisciplinary research, structured around three core programmes. CARES (Centre for Agroecology and Regeneration for the Semi-Arid), based at Horta da Malhadinha, develops and tests pioneering regenerative agroforestry practices adapted to semi-arid climates, drawing on syntropic farming principles inspired by Ernst Götsch. PREC (Regenerative Process in Progress) is a restaurant, café, grocery, and local food hub connecting producers, cooks, and consumers with meals made from local, organic, and regenerative produce. A third strand brings ecological education into schools and homes across the municipality, including a forest-garden project across five local schools.
Founded by a diverse group with backgrounds in forestry, biology, journalism, nutrition, and syntropic farming, Terra Sintrópica now runs a team spanning strategy, agricultural operations, communications, project management, and community facilitation. The association participates in European cooperation projects such as Erasmus+ RE2RE and Erasmus+ MAPPING, and coordinates local initiatives like TerrAlimenta to build short food circuits and food sovereignty in the Baixo Alentejo.
Terra Sintrópica's vision is to establish Mértola as a model territory demonstrating that ecological regeneration, community resilience, and new regenerative economies can coexist and thrive under climate change, cultivating an intergenerational culture of care for the land.
Our Goal
Terra Sintrópica aims to regenerate the semi-arid ecosystems of the Mértola region through syntropic agroforestry, agroecological transition, and community-rooted food systems, positioning Mértola as a replicable model for regeneration in semi-arid territories.
Our Wishes
The project seeks volunteers, kitchen staff, agroforestry practitioners willing to share data for the agroforestry mapping initiative, and partners to help expand short food supply circuits in the Baixo Alentejo.
