{"id":74217,"date":"2025-11-29T08:53:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T08:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eco123.info\/?p=74217"},"modified":"2025-11-29T09:24:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T09:24:26","slug":"rede-natura-2000-ptcon-0037-monchique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eco123.info\/en\/short-stories-en\/rede-natura-2000-ptcon-0037-monchique\/","title":{"rendered":"Rede Natura 2000 \u2013 PTCON 0037 \u2013 Monchique"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peace reigns over the land. Up there, in the mountains, there is a slight breeze. The eagle circles majestically above me, spiralling higher and higher, looking for a hare to swoop down on and skilfully grab in its dive, which it will then kill and eat in a safe place. \"\"The Bonelli\u2019s eagle has its nest in the European Union\u2019s PTCON 0037 nature reserve, located in the bottom left corner of the map of Europe, at the beginning of Portugal and at the end of Europe, just before we reach the south-western cape in the mountains of the village of the same name, Monchique. I know a skilled photographer who carefully observed the nest and its contents every day with his camera and a telephoto lens from a safe distance, photographing its contents, eagles and brood. First there were the eggs, then the young eagles hatched, and the mother and father took turns in protecting them and searching for food. Slowly, as if in slow motion, the brood grew larger, still unaware of the dangers that life brings. For Monchique is home to many enemies of nature. They laugh at the PTCON 0037 nature reserve, which was imposed on them from Brussels. They wanted to make money from the land of their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, etc. What is the forest for? That is the all-important question: what is the forest for?<\/span><\/p>\n

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War<\/b><\/span> came suddenly and, for around ten days, reigned over the land once again, beginning at 1 p.m. on Friday 3 August 2018. It was actually the last lunch break before the weekend, which everyone in Monchique was already looking forward to. Then the fire sirens started wailing. It was a hot summer\u2019s day, with the weather forecast predicting 44 degrees and a south-easterly wind: a light breeze, but a steady warm gust from the Sahara that made your head spin. The fishermen down on the coast stayed in the harbours. It made no sense to catch sardines with two to three-metre-high waves. And yes, August is the best time for catching sardine shoals. However, in order to do this, fishermen need offshore winds. These had been expected to arrive earlier and to be stronger than anyone would have liked. Winds from the north, cold winds, gusty and fresh, had been forecast for Saturday afternoon with force six at least.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"Fire!<\/b><\/span> Six kilometres north of Monchique, five to six-metre-tall eucalyptus trees brush against a high-voltage power line in a deserted area. These few trees at the side of the road touch the 15,000-volt power lines and create a spark, which falls into the undergrowth and starts a fire. And before you know it, when the fire brigade arrives, the fire is already blazing in the eucalyptus forest. They bring everything they have to extinguish the fire, but they are chasing it across the rough, mountainous terrain in and around Taipas and Perna da Negra, where good roads are rare. There are no tarmac roads, only dirt tracks. So, heavy equipment has to be brought in: bulldozers open the way to the fire, pushing behind it as it moves. And the one thing they don\u2019t have is enough time. Here, the monocultures have been planted in terraces, extending all the way into the watercourses, which is prohibited. The forest owners don\u2019t care. No one checks. Out here, there is no GNR (police) and, above all, there is no local council at work, and no town hall. Here, it is the law of the strongest that applies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"When there is a fire, the natural instinct is to run away. However, it is best to question our instinct, because, when there is a fire, we want to extinguish it immediately and without further discussion. That is why we have installed our own fire extinguishing system in our botanical forest garden in Caldas de Monchique. Since it is not available to buy, we (the cooperative, the publisher of ECO123) designed such a system ourselves. We are trying to create a special kind of open-air museum covering three hectares, planting a mixed forest of native tree species: an oasis in a sea of eucalyptus monocultures.<\/span><\/p>\n

All around us, the natural forest, consisting mainly of cork-oaks, was cleared in the 1990s, and, once such forests are gone, a vicious circle begins. Researchers have found that, in those areas where forests are cleared, there is less rainfall afterwards. The systematic pattern of rain and evaporation is disrupted. Where the trees have disappeared, the soil is eroded: the untouched and unspoiled forest, as it once was, will no longer grow here, at least not in a timeframe that humans can foresee. If you want to see this natural forest again in this generation, hike to Bem Parece<\/span> <\/b>in the north of the village of Monchique. There, the Nunes family has protected and preserved their native forest. And yet, even here, there have been fires. It is a bulwark of cork oaks that surround the village like an eggshell. Only in the event of a fire fuelled by eucalyptus monocultures will a cork-oak forest eventually burn, especially if the bark has just been stripped\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

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After a forest fire <\/b><\/span>or the clearing of native, centuries-old woodland, it is not only the cooling effect that is lost forever. The forest itself suffers from global warming, and to an above-average extent. In recent years, temperatures in the Serra de Monchique are estimated to have risen by three degrees Celsius. The region has experienced its worst droughts since records began, in what was once the most water-rich area in southern Portugal. Springs and streams are drying up. Fish are dying. Because where eucalyptus now grows instead of cork-oaks and chestnuts, such trees are anything but frugal, guzzling water in huge amounts, as they need it for their rapid growth. There is now drought. Ironically, it is the native forest that is increasingly falling victim to forest fires, in addition to all the slash-and-burn practices. In 2024 and 2025 alone, 2.5 million hectares of native forest burned on the Iberian Peninsula, more than in any of the previous twenty years. Researchers estimate that this released as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as Germany, with its 82 million inhabitants, emits in a year. And that\u2019s not even including targeted, controlled slash-and-burn practices. When one hectare of forest burns, 20,000 tons of CO<\/span>2<\/span><\/sub> are released. This is unacceptable in times of climate crisis. Forest fires should be at the top of the political agenda. They must be avoided at all costs if humans and animals are to survive on this planet.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Eucalyptus brings money. That is the only reason why it is cultivated. Not because of its pungent smell, nor because of the taste of its sweets. Eucalyptus wood is used to make the finest white paper, and Portugal is a small country with a total area of 92,212 km\u00b2. One million hectares of forest are planted with eucalyptus monocultures, which now cover more than 10,000 km\u00b2 of the territory. People are in denial about the fact that they have been living for more than a generation in a powder keg that will explode into a forest fire somewhere every summer. In Monchique, after the fifth forest fire in 2020, they began replacing eucalyptus with <\/span>medronheiro<\/i><\/span> scrubland. However, this is only a handful of hectares, which are merely symbolic of a new policy. The Natura 2000 network, imposed across large parts of Monchique by the EU Commission, covers 76,138 hectares and borders the districts of Silves, Odemira, Aljezur and Lagos. This area was once home to a forest, the likes of which only a few people have ever seen. Just a generation ago, animals such as mongooses, lynxes and many different species of birds used to live here; they should have been protected. But anyone who declares an area a nature reserve and fails to communicate the details clearly to the local authorities is living in a world of their own somewhere <\/span><\/p>\n