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Nature

Rewilding Portugal?

Garrano horses and Maronesa cattle (resembling an aurochs), as well as griffon vultures and many other wild or semi-wild animals live in a privately-owned, open nature reserve of 856 hectares, which is also classified as a bird sanctuary and a UNESCO World Heritage Archaeological Site. The caves along the banks of the river are home to 20,000-year-old rock paintings from the Stone Age… Faia Brava belongs to the Transhumance and Nature Association (ATN)  based in Castelo Rodrigo. This year it is celebrating its 25th anniversary. I was one of the first foreign visitors to inaugurate the Grande Rota Vale do …

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When the coast is clear…

Today, 1 April, we’re staying in Portugal, on our own doorstep, so to speak. I’m dealing with animals. Yes, we are not alone on this planet, dear friends. We humans have multiplied and prevailed over animals to such an extent that we are now the ones who call the shots. We are, so to speak, without external enemies. All together, we humans now number more than eight and a half billion. We can only become our own enemies. But, even so, that is still far too short-sighted. I watch my black cat, Titinha, every day. She is a beautiful, slim …

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Those Magnificent Men in Their Yellow Flying Machines.

Saturday 21st October 2023. Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Yellow Machines  first came close to me on a Tuesday, 29 August. They came so close that they did get me a bit wet with the sheer quantity of water they offloaded from the sky, over 3,000 litres after all, weighing three tons.  Their intended target was of course not me, but the last remains of a forest fire up on the summit of the Picota Mountain in Monchique, in southern Portugal. Yet it did prick my curiosity. The pilots had spotted the remains of a fire from the sky, …

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Waiting for Godot?

Saturday the 12th of August 2023. Gallows’ humour in our own backyard? ECO123 and the new Botanical Garden at Caldas de Monchique: it’s not that easy to be close to a forest fire and write a story about possible solutions to climate change. Where should this story begin, and where can it end? Baiona, Alentejo. A barbecue triggers this gigantic conflagration. So this time it’s a wood-fired grill. The list of stories surrounding the reasons behind forest fires is long. If no-one has deliberately started the fire, it was not caused by intent but by gross negligence; in any case …

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A new small forest in Algoz.

Saturday the 5th of August 2023. And now for something completely different. Last March, biologist Sónia Soares fulfilled a long-held dream in her own garden. Taking a plot of 100 m² (5 x 20m) she planted a new young diverse forest consisting of 19 different species of trees and plants. How did she go about it, why did she do it, and what kind of methods did she employ, and not least what did this all cost, were questions ECO123 asked her during a visit to Algoz. Planting small forests the size of a tennis court in cities and towns …

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We are but a part of nature.

Saturday the 22nd of July 2023. My lemon tree is trying to tell me something: „look at me, I’m thirsty, my roots are no longer finding any water.“ My fig tree is showing a similar reaction. Its leaves are taking on an ever lighter colour before falling to the ground: for lack of water. Everything is drying up. The large umbrella pine is laying on a kind of red carpet. Yet it’s not showing the way to the Cannes film festival. Temperatures are rising and rising, and it’s throwing half of its needles at my feet. Too much weight, too …

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The Invaders.
A tale in three parts, by Uwe Heitkamp, based on Georg Büchner 1839.

A tale in three parts, by Uwe Heitkamp, based on Georg Büchner 1839.

Saturday the 20th may of 2023. Part One. On 5 November Lenz was walking through the hills, all by himself. The summits and high mountain flanks were gleaming in the sun, and the valleys below were covered in green after the rain. Brooks were rushing across the rocks, and the eucalyptus trees were swaying in the wind. Temperatures had gone up a bit again. The clouds in the sky were scurrying from north to south, as if in a hurry. The umbrella pines above him were absorbing the strong winds. The air was humid and the long valleys stretching from …

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Tiny Forests are part of the solution

Forests store CO2, forests store water, forests keep cities cool, forests ease droughts, forests protect against erosion. This is a list that could go on and on. A forest that is properly protected is an investment in the future. By 2030, the EU wants to see at least three billion trees planted. That’s not bad. However, you can plant a lot of trees in eight years, but not a forest, right? Unless we were to plant a large number of Miyawaki forests. What are they? And how do they work? Akira Miyawaki, a Japanese botanist who was born in 1928 and …

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Stop talking. Start planting.

Planting trees is the most effective measure against the overheating of the Earth. Maybe in a few years‘ time humanity will come to the realisation that part of our salvation lies in rebelling, i.e planting trees as if our lives depended on it and reanimating landscapes wherever possible… This is the way 48-year old Jochen Schilk puts it in his book Re-Greening the World “50 infectious stories about planting trees”. Rarely have I been sent a book in such an unconventional way. One Friday morning as I opened my letterbox down by the road there it was, wrapped in brown …

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What’s the value of Nature?

From time immemorial, Nature has been providing us with our essentials, including fruit, cereals, fish, meat and wood. Clean air and clean water are other free gifts of Nature. Economists group all these aspects together under the concept of natural capital. Put simply, natural capital is defined as the stock of natural goods and services, such as soil, forest or the sea, which provide fresh air, for example, or drinking water. Yet it is, in fact, problematical to attempt to place a value on the services of nature. If humans want to use the natural resources in a gentle and …

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