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Local solutions for global problems By definition, an eco-village can be a traditional village community, part of a city, or a living community founded for this purpose. An eco-village in Europe or North America mostly comes into being because its inhabitants want to live healthier or more community-based lives. In the global south, in contrast, it is often a matter of survival: food autonomy, protection and survival in conflict regions, or about escaping poverty. In the process, worldwide cooperation through sustainability strategies has developed. We invite you on a journey to several different parts of the world. Auroville, India – …

The “Festival of Bird Watching and Nature Activities” will be held in Sagres from 1st to 4th October. This event, which earned Vila do Bispo the award of “Municipality of the Year”, takes place at the peak of autumn migration, when migratory birds leave our shores and head for the warmer climes of Africa. This initiative has a varied programme with some 200 activities planned that are connected with nature, with a special focus on birds. Indeed, during the four days of the festival, participants can enjoy nature interpretation outings into the countryside, boats trips, thematic mini-courses, workshops for children, …

48-year-old “solar chef” Celestino Ruivo is a lecturer at the Higher Institute of Engineering of the University of Algarve, and he started using solar ovens in July 2006. His interest in solar ovens developed after he attended an international conference on solar cooking in Granada. Celestino Ruivo says that he “brought back a solar oven made of cardboard, called a solar cookit, in which I started cooked rice and chickens”. He adds: “From then on, I organised several activities spreading the word about solar cooking”. Solar ovens can cook just like a stove, or gas or electric ovens. The main …

A system inspired by natural ecosystems – permaculture – has been attracting the attention of a number of people who wish to create a sustainable form of life in order to produce their own food. Eco123 went to see one of these projects located in Monchique that is registered with the Rede Convergir network. The project ‘Terra do Milho’ (Land of Maize) was created by Monique Volkers, aged 52, and her husband, Tom Stobbelar, aged 59, who have been working independently since 2010. “My parents bought a piece of land and I came to Portugal, now I am working here …

Seedrs is a new English online platform in Portugal (from London) for discovering and investing in startup companies. That platform makes it possible for people to invest as much or as little as someone like in the startups they choose through a simple, online process. Seedrs let startup businesses raise seed capital seamlessly from friends, family, members of their communities and independent investors. Two core objectives: Transform the startup world by giving entrepreneurs a platform to leverage their friends, family and existing base of supporters to collectively raise investment. These investors represent a large new pool of capital and can …

The magazine ECO123 has started a reforestation campaign in Castelão with the Parish Council of Cachopo and the basic education school “Professor Joaquim Moreira” in Martim Longo. This village is located in one of the areas in the Algarve that was badly affected by the major fires in the municipalities of Tavira and São Brás de Alportel between 18th and 22nd July 2012. It thus contributes to the awareness-raising and training campaign carried out by the teacher Sílvia Barbosa and the President of the Parish Council of Cachopo, Otília Cardeira, which primarily involved the participation of 30 1st cycle pupils. …

At nine in the morning on a Friday in October, more than 100 activists from the Flamingo association from Corroios and A Nossa Terra from Monchique met on the 902-metre-high peak of Foía in the Monchique mountains. They had brought around 1,000 young oak trees (carvalho canariensis) from their nursery with them. In the woods that had earlier been destroyed by forest fires, Luís Grade, the deputy mayor, had prepared four 15-hectare areas of forest with colleagues from the town council (see photo) where new trees were to be planted. The roots of the eucalyptus trees that dominate all other …

Social agriculture increasingly represents a feasible innovative approach to bringing about economic empowerment and the social inclusion of vulnerable persons and families through agriculture based resources. Falling within MAIE – the Multifunctional Agriculture Initiative of Europe, in partnership with representatives from Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Finland, AgroBio – the Portuguese Organic Agriculture Association staged a social agriculture training program at the Higher Agrarian Institute of Coimbra on 30th, 31st October and 1st November. With the audience made up both of farmers and social welfare professionals, the core objective of this social agriculture training program …

Aráquide, caranga, carango, jiguba, jinguba, mandubi, mandobi, manobi, amendubi, amendo, mepinda, mancarra, manobi, mindubim and amendoim… lots of names for a nut that comes originally from South America and is cultivated by 45-year-old António Rosa in Maria Vinagre, a small village near Aljezur in the Southwest Alentejo and Vicentina Coast Natural Park. His four hectares of agricultural land are certified. There, in the sandy soil, he cultivates the peanuts or groundnuts, unique in Portugal and Europe. His agricultural product, known as Alcagoita, is processed into the finest peanut butter. The whole process, from cultivation to processing to selling of the …

In the current times, we have various energy concerns and not always coinciding. On the one hand, we want to save energy and not always for ecological reasons – the cost of utility bills also carries its own weight. Furthermore, we access an ever larger number of consumer devices without which we would seemingly otherwise not exist: computers, machines for every possible purpose, mobile phones, iPads, iPods, photo and video cameras, etcetera. As if this dichotomy were not enough, many such devices are portable as everybody has some need to be in contact with everybody at whatever the time even …