Between the months of October and December 2023, we carried out several reforestation actions in Faia Brava, with the aim of supporting the regeneration of degraded areas with poor soils. The ATNatureza team, with the support of students from Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo and Dutch and Portuguese volunteers, planted 2060 trees and shrubs and sowed around 8500 acorns on a total of 4 hectares in our reserve.
Our reforestation strategy, in which we tried to minimize soil mobilization, was divided into three aspects:
Plantation of trees (oaks, holm oaks, cork oaks, lodons, among others) in shrubby areas, in order to accelerate ecological succession and extend pre-existing woodlands;
Planting willow and dog rose cuttings in and around watercourses, in order to increase biodiversity and integrity of riparian areas;
Direct sowing of acorns (cerquinho oak, cork oak and holm oak) in degraded areas in the reserve.
In the photo there is an Oak planted between bushes.
Seeding
This year we continued our effort to create cereal sowings in Faia Brava. These traditional crops are essential for maintaining populations of species such as the wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), the hare (Lepus granatensis) and the red partridge (Alectoris rufa), essential prey to support carnivores such as rupicolous raptors.
Olive harvest
As usual, this autumn we once again carried out the traditional olive harvest in the BIO olive groves of our reserve.
Thanks to the efforts of our field team, this year we beat our previous record. The 2023 harvest reached 10 tonnes of olives for the production of Faia Brava organic olive oil. During this campaign we had the helpful collaboration of a group of students from the vocational courses at Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo Secondary School.
Well done to everyone. Maintaining this traditional activity helps to bring to life the region's rich cultural the region's rich cultural heritage, while at the same time funding our activities in favour of nature conservation.
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