Report

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 …

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, …

From people to people In the 1960s, New York had Andy Warhol’s Factory, of which John Cale said “every day something new”. This description applies perfectly to the LX Factory in Lisbon, which is similar in every way to a living organism. In the 43,000m² of this “Creative Island”, there are more than 200 companies where some 1,500 people work. One of the places that best represents the spirit of the LX Factory is CoWork, a working space shared by independent professionals. But it is practically impossible not to visit every corner of the place, driven in equal measure by …

Organic agriculture is not a recent phenomenon and proof of this is that Agrobio, the Portuguese Organic Agriculture Association, has been running for 28 years. According to its president, Jaime Ferreira, the number of people involved in this field has increased, but the total is small. More and more consumers are interested but they have difficulty finding the products easily. The Algarve has some 3,000 hectares of land certificated for organic farming, with vegetables, fruit and some vineyards close to the coast accounting for quite a small share as compared with pasture and olive groves in the uplands of the …

 People. Planet. Profit. New bankers are what the country needs. We approach the topic of MONEY from the air. As we sit in the climate killer, well aware that each of us is burdening the atmosphere with a further 1.2 tonnes of CO₂ for this edition, the Airbus 320 from Lisbon prepares to land in Berlin. In its luggage, the magazine ECO123 has an invitation to the annual meeting of the GABV – the Global Alliance for Banking on Values. We want to find out how sustainable bankers aim to change the global economy for the better. Of course, two …

A holistic view of economics, which puts it in its rightful place, in the service of people with skilful hands, who are guarantors of expertise and quality, working in partnership with nature in order to offer people unique experiences, appears to be a successful way of boosting regional production. As AMO – Produto Local can attest. Regional products in lotion containers? Passers-by cannot fail to notice the black packaging with its modern design bearing the brand-name AMO, where no detail is left to chance. Even if these do not go unnoticed and remind one of lotion pots, what they contain …

In the heart of the Lower Alentejo, an ecological village, practically self-sufficient, plans to show the way and offer local solutions for global problems, in harmony with the environment. A community which wants to do more and better, at a time when resources are increasingly hard to come by. The bell rings. Once, twice, three times. It’s the signal that lunch is ready. It’s time to rest one’s body and placate one’s stomach. Gradually, the people who have been involved in different tasks throughout the community start to arrive for lunch. Their faces, flushed from working in the scorching heat, …

Sustainable food production – the example of the success story of Risca Grande  It is a cool Saturday morning at the end of October. A group of six students from the Beja College of Agriculture and their lecturer in olive growing are heading for Santa Iria, 30 km away. Shortly after leaving the village, they turn on to a gravel road. A road sign shows them the direction: Risca Grande – extra virgin olive oil. The destination for the trip was carefully chosen by the lecturer Carlos Filipe: after all, Risca Grande has become a model business for organic olive …

More and more buildings in Portugal are empty. Especially houses in city centres. This is something that Arrebita! Porto wants to change by adopting a social enterprise model. If the pilot project succeeds in Porto, where the problem is particularly bad, it could be a sustainable way out of the crisis for the whole country. The streets that lead down to the banks of the Douro are flanked by old buildings. They form part of Porto’s Ribeira old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There was a time when their colourful tiled façades sparkled in the sunshine and they were …