Forest fires affect the micro-reserves of Association BioLiving

The forest fires that affected Estarreja municipality reached the micro-reserves of our Lusitanica project. We will now need help to recover from ecological and material damage, and continue the work of protection (of nature and populations). In this article, you can learn more about what happened and how you can help.

Forest fires raged these days in the municipalities of Oliveira de Azeméis, Estarreja and Albergaria-a-Velha, causing considerable impacts on the two micro-reserves for nature conservation managed by BioLiving. The two properties – Fonte do Cabreiro and Marçaneira – have been managed by the Association since 2016 and 2018, respectively. Located in the parish of Canelas, in Estarreja, the two properties are small oases of biodiversity inserted in a sea of ​​eucalyptus trees and were fundamental in protecting populations (human and animal) from the worst.

Fonte do Cabreiro consists of a native forest that is crossed by a small stream which, with the fires upstream, was almost dry. In this area, BioLiving maintained its small forest nursery, with hundreds of native species that would serve next winter's plantations, a shed where activities were dynamized, and a small warehouse for tools and materials, such as hoes, picks, rakes, gloves and hoses, which were used in ecological restoration work.

The nursery, the shed and the warehouse were destroyed, as it was located on a bordering part of the property, adjacent to a neighboring eucalyptus grove, where the fire burned violently, on a front coming from the north. After consuming these logistical areas, the flames found the native forest planted by BioLiving in March 2016, and stopped there, after singeing the first two rows of trees.

A second front, coming from the south, found the opposite side of the same forest, which on that side also stopped the flames, preventing their spreading close to houses and vegetable gardens in that region.

Less than a kilometer from Fonte do Cabreiro, BioLiving manages land that forms the Marçaneira Reserve, an old eucalyptus area that the group of environmentalists and biologists was converting to native forest, with the help of dozens of volunteers. This area is in an intricate network of eucalyptus trees that burned to the ground. The flames were held back by the wildlife ponds the Association had built, the native vegetation they had planted, as well as the oaks they set aside as sanctuaries for the stag beetle, a protected species of beetle.

The scenario is dantesque and desolated. However, despite the severe damage, from a sea of ​​ash rises the native vegetation, "firefighter", which protected the local fauna and avoided the worst.

BioLiving has long warned of the danger of the extensive kilometers of uninterrupted, and mostly poorly managed, eucalyptus trees that cover this region of the country. This episode clearly demonstrates the importance, on the one hand, of the native forest for the safety of human and wild populations, and, on the other hand, the need for forest management designed at the scale of the territory and not of the property.

In BioLiving's opinion, large fires such as these, which consumed more than 2500 hectares of uninterrupted monocultures, will hardly cease if solutions are not implemented to make industrial forest management compatible with the conservation and enhancement of endogenous natural values.

Since all the Association's income is reinvested in nature conservation and environmental education programs, BioLiving will now need help to repair the damage, acquire new tools and rebuild the shed and warehouse, fundamental structures to continue its pedagogical activity and intervention for environmental restoration.

Later this summer, the Association will open a volunteer program to start repairing the damage, which, over time, will include the construction of more water reservoirs, plantations, control of invasive species and the reconstruction of infrastructure, which will depend on external support.