European Rewilding Network in Portugal

European Rewilding Network

Rewilding Europe recognizes that its work at the European level is part of a broader rewilding movement. As part of this movement, many large and inspiring initiatives have already developed in recent decades, with new projects continuing to proliferate across the continent.

The aim of the innovative European Rewilding Network (ERN) is to bring these initiatives together, empowering each member of the network with the information and tools they need to be more successful in their rewilding projects. Rewilding Europe wants to establish a live network of incentives for rewilding, supporting them and facilitating the adoption of the best practices and methodologies of rewilding.

All initiatives that join the network are included in a databas. Members can easily connect with similar initiatives in Europe and are in contact with Rewilding Europe itself and its rewilding areas. In addition, network members can incorporate additional information critical to their projects through specific training, learning seminars and exchange visits that contribute positively to the work all initiatives are committed to: Making Europe a wilder place.

Members in Portugal

“Vale das Lobas is a nature & health sanctuary for well-being, discovery and biodiversity, in the fringes of the Estrela mountains in central Portugal. It is a rural regeneration initiative, to restore health, revitalise community and regenerate ecology, creating a positive impact on people, community and planet.

Vale das Lobas integrates ancestral traditions with innovation, using regenerative farming, sustainable construction, natural medicine, artisan crafts and the rewilding and protection of natural ecosystems. They encourage the increase of economic activity with regeneration of biodiversity and improvement of soil health in a symbiotic cycle.

This 50-plus hectare area, which includes a 300-year-old chestnut and oak forest and a river, is the heart of an expanding Biodiversity Park. Under its Regeneration Protocol, land owners can make their lands available to be havens for Nature, through management and guidance from the non-profit organisation. This is a new concept of biodiversity conservation which fully integrates natural and healing practices with regeneration of local communities and the rural landscape.”

“The Estrela Geopark Association was founded in May 2016, and is headquartered at the Instituto Politécnico da Guarda. This association was created within the scope of the UNESCO World Geopark territory application, whose objective is to promote actions that stimulate development socioeconomic, cultural and environmental, sustainable and balanced of the nine municipalities that make part of this territory (Belmonte, Celorico da Beira, Covilhã, Fornos de Algodres, Gouveia, Guarda, Manteigas, Oliveira do Hospital and Seia), totaling an area of 2,216 km².

In this role, the association works in different areas, from Geoconservation, Science, Education, Tourism, to Communication, being responsible for managing UNESCO’s World Estrela Geopark brand, awarded to the territory in July 2020. Structured in a multidisciplinary approach, the work for the preservation of this heritage has Education as its main foundation, making local populations aware of the value of their territory and contributing to a new paradigm that casts a less extractive and more sustainable look on natural heritage and natural resources.”