Portugal

Once upon a time, there were two royal children who were brought up by two Bonelli’s eagles. On 15th and 18th March 2013, they slipped out of their two eggs that had been laid, carefully hidden away in a safe nest made of twigs and leaves high up in a pine tree deep in the forest. The queen had sat on the eggs for 42 days until they hatched. Meanwhile, the king of all the birds flew in circles, slowly using the good thermals to work his way upwards with his 175 cm wide wings to lofty heights to get …

In the 1970s and 1980s, the number of international citizens buying houses or plots for construction in Portugal, with a particular incidence in the Algarve, was at a high level. And they experienced full on the locally prevailing lack of respect for bureaucratic rules and varying from council to council. To make matters worse, many international citizens did not live here full-time and did not keep up to date with the continuous changes ongoing to the legislation. In 1987, AFPOP – the Association of Foreign Property Owners in Portugal was founded and serving as a type of mutual help centre, …

Already on the Alfa Pendular service. With a CO2 emission of but four kilograms, the journalist leaves the Portuguese south behind to speed north at 220 km and recalls his immediate past. A few days ago, he’d taken to his wardrobe in order to dig out his old, best suit to check that it would stand up to the needs of this mission. He needed a suit in tip-top condition and that also fitted him well as he was due to play the role of a wealthy investor. A test but the means by which he hoped to open the …

Hiking signifies a return to our roots, to our innate speed, and to an original form of life. It will repeatedly remind us that it is only for a short time that we are guests on this planet, which we have subdued. Wouldn’t we do better to see ourselves just as part of the whole: with nature, the forests, the animals, with all our earth’s resources? We also go walking to see with our own eyes how the countryside develops from year to year. When we go walking, our thoughts become sharper. All our senses are awake and feel, see, …

The IPCC is the body responsible for assessing climate change. It was set up by the United Nations Environment Organisation and by the World Meteorology Organisation. Its aim is to be an independent scientific body, focusing on analysing climate change and its main environmental and socio-economic implications. Its collaborators, from all over the world, carry out specialist work, but on an voluntary basis, which ensures that there is a wide range of opinions and points of view which are reflected in the conclusions they present.

An old proverb tells us that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. In the case of the Templo Hindu in Lisbon, I wouldn’t be surprised if some devotees had started by visiting the canteen. In Lisbon, as throughout the world, there is no shortage of Indian restaurants. But restaurants, Indian or not, are just that: restaurants. A canteen in a Hindu temple, which serves home-made Indian food, is, in comparison, a parallel universe and probably the best way for one’s stomach to visit India without leaving Lisbon. Hinduism is the main religion of India, and nutrition …

Guide to second-hand shops The purchase of used items tends increasingly to be linked to the crisis, but second-hand shops have always existed all over the place. There are lots of people for whom buying used goods is a lifestyle, either for financial reasons, or because what they are looking for is no longer produced. Some shops specialise in clothing, some in records, furniture or books, and others are more general and sell all types of things, rather like mini-versions of Lisbon’s Feira da Ladra. This market is still the place for second-hand items par excellence, despite the proliferation of …

At present, there is a population of 6,045 living in an area of 396 square kilometres, surrounded by hills and forests. 76% of these are eucalyptus plantations. During the most recent forest fires in 2003, 317 square kilometres of forest burned in ten days, i.e. 80% of the municipality. A trauma that still lives on today because the fire brigade were barely able to put the fires out. Twelve years before, in 1991, fires raged in Monchique for a week. Again and again, the upland forests catch fire and destroy the small-scale farming livelihoods of the inhabitants even more. And …

Lieutnant-Colonel; Chief of the Nature and  Environment Protection Service ECO123: In your opinion, what it the solution for the forest fires in Portugal? GNR: Allow me to begin my response by stating that fires are not fought, fires are avoided. This leads us to the prevention phase. Immediate prevention, let’s call it, which implies raising the awareness of people who live in the rural areas so as to draw attention to behaviours which should be avoided and to prevention campaigns which must be implemented periodically before the summer period. For short- to medium-term results, campaigns and awareness-raising among the young …

ECO123: What is needed in order not to have forest fires in Portugal in 2014? Fernando Castelo, former chief of the voluntary fire-fighters of Portimão, in the senior officers reserve, responded: More inspection activity is needed, for example in the case of burning and clearing the land, and penalising those people who do not comply with the law. T his is the work of the security forces, especially the GNR, but there should be a role involving more intervention by the fire brigades, through a change in the law. There should also be information and training campaigns carried out among …