Biodiversity Action Plans in Portugal's Agroforestry Business

Biodiversity Action Plans in Portugal’s
Agroforestry Business
Oliveira, Nuno Gaspar; Gouveia, Ana Filipa; Antunes, Sandra; Tavares, Maria do Carmo

Biodiversity Action Plans in Portugal’s Agroforestry Business
What is a Biodiversity Action Plan?
The ‘Business & Biodiversity’ Initiative
Biodiversity Hotspots in Portugal
The Agroforestry Sector in Portugal
Certification and Sustainable Management
In Practice…
Slide # 2

Slide # 3
AmBioDiv - Valor Natural is a private sector consultancy SME dedicated to the
development os strategies and projects of Conservation and Sustainability.
Our Vision: Have an active roll in society, by providing and delivering the
most apropriated conservation tools for Business and local authorities.
Our Mission: Plan, Do, Check, Act - ‘Business and Biodiversity’ Projects.

Biodiversity Hotspots –
Portugal ?!?
Slide # 4

What is a Biodiversity Action
Plan?
 Evaluates and monitors wildlife and habitats with
regional/local interest, with conservation status
(IUCN/ICN Red Book) and included in EU Directives;
 Evaluates species with importance in crop protection
and soil conservation;
 Define biological indicator groups to assess and
monitor the performance of pro-Conservation
practices;
 Target both crop areas and surroundings, including
woodlands, scrublands, streamsides, pounds, set-aside
areas, hedgerows, windbreakers, inter alia, for proper
habitat management.
©AmBioDiv, 2006
Slide # 5

What is a Biodiversity Action
Plan?
 Evaluating the Interactions between agricultural and
non-agricultural land: By monitoring a set of indicators it
will be possible to access how the biodiversity flows and
interacts between the different types of land units;
 Changings in land cover: Minimize the impacts on
biodiversity in crop and neighbour plots by managing,
restoring or enhancing set aside areas, waterlines and
hedgerows, and creating conditions for beneficial species
of fauna and flora;
 Commited with Nature: In order to comply with the
environmental and social standarts for which the
Sustainability Policy stands for, there is a commitment to
proceed with a business model where farming can coexist
with wildlife protection and natural habitat conservation.
Slide # 6

The ‘Business & Biodiversity’
Initiative In 2007, Portugal launched a Business & Biodiversity initiative aiming to
involve the Portuguese companies in the global effort to stop the loss
of Biodiversity until 2010 and beyond.
 The Portuguese Business & Biodiversity initiative is managed by the ICNB
(Institute for Nature Conservation and Biodiversity), and is voluntary.
 Each company commits itself to evaluate the impact of its activity on
biodiversity and to improve its management to decrease this impact. The
process and the commitments must be public, and the ICNB is responsible
to secure the transparency.
 The protocols are based in a document produced by the
company/organization that summarizes its history, sector of activity,
Biodiversity Strategy and the type of commitments.
 The B&B initiative has +40 companies and organizations from different
sectors of activities: agroforestry, financial sector, utilties (water,
energy…), construction and tourism
Slide # 7

Slide # 8

The Agroforestry Sector in
Portugal
 +15% GNP
 +60.000 Km2
 Wood, pulp, paper, biomass
 Cork
 Wine
 Cattle, milk, meat, leather,
…
 + 2.500.000 jobs (both direct
and indirect)
 …Biodiversity!
Slide # 9

Certification and Sustainable Management Slide # 10

Corporate Identity: How
does the company values
Nature and Ecology?
Inovation and
Competitiveness: Can
Biodiversity become a more
attractive / diferenciated product
/ service for the company?
Natural Value: The company
is aware of the actual /
potencial value of Biodiversity
regarding its patrimony?
Agroforestry
Productionand
Markets:
Impact on Biodiversity and
Ecosystems : Risk management,
productivity factors
Functional Biodiversity : Natural
enemies, pollinators, set aside habitats,
soil protection...
Sustainable Management: Genetic
resources (land races), certification:
organic, FSC, GlobalGAP, LEAF,
Nature’s Choice...
ConservationAreas
Biodiversity Assessment, legal / protection
status of species and habitats...
High Conservation Value Areas
Ectourism and Local Development /
Ecoentrepreneurship
Countdown 2010 – Halting
Biodiversity Loss
Stage 1: Business Awareness for Biodiversity
Stage 2: Biodiversity goes to Market
Context: What is the
National and
International value for
Biodiversity?
‘Business & Biodiversity’ Action
Plan
Slide # 11

‘Business & Biodiversity’ Action
Plan
Slide # 12
Defining High Conservation Value Areas using the ‘Habitat Aproach’
Habitat A
Sp. Flora A1 Sp. Flora A3Sp. Flora A2 Sp. Flora Ax
ArchitectureStructure
Ecological Complexity (Ecological Succession)
Echological Niche (Conservation Value)
Feeding BreedingRefugia Mutualism...
Sp. Fauna A1 Sp. Fauna A3Sp. Fauna A2 Sp. Fauna Ax

In
Practice…
Slide # 13

In
Practice…
Slide # 14

Even politics agree... If the Montado goes, Biodiversity goes with
itParliamentary questions
4 August 2008 E-4506/08
WRITTEN QUESTION by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission
Subject: Environmental disaster affecting the ‘montado’ system in the Alentejo (Portugal) Answer(s)
The system combining agriculture, forestry and grazing known as the ‘montado’, which is a specific phenomenon of
southern Portugal (albeit also existing, in sone cases in a somewhat different shape, in other regions of southern Europe),
has been in regression in recent decades thanks to a number of factors, one of them being the discrimination it has suffered
under a CAP which has never recognised it as an agricultural system.
Despite the universal recognition today by the scientific community of the crucial role of this productive system in
preserving biodiversity and the rural environment, no significant change has yet intervened. The ‘montado’ remains
the object of discrimination and indifference, and there is still no consensus on how to diagnose and tackle the
problem.
The problem has been rendered far more urgent in recent years by reason of the diseases which have gravely affected the
‘montados’. The newspaper ‘Público’ reported on 21 July 2008 that in the Alentejo alone there are now 1.5 m dead trees and
a further 1 million that are severely diseased. Recently, on the occasion of Portugal's biggest agricultural fair, the ‘Ovibeja’,
the president of the ‘Forum-ASAJA Huelva’, a farmers' association in western Andalusia (where the problem is similar),
proposed solutions involving the total reafforestation of the ‘montado’.
At all events, the crisis of the ‘montado’ is the gravest problem affecting biodiversity and sustainable agriculture in a
large swathe of southern Europe, and needs to be dealt with as a matter of urgency at European level.
Can the Commission state what measures — e.g. creation of working groups, scientific studies, adaptations of agricultural
policy — it has taken or intends to take with a view to tackling this disastrous situation?
Original language of question: PT
Poslední aktualizace: 11. srpna 2008
Slide # 15

So, why is wine important to me?...
Slide # 16

Now seriously, why is a CORKED bottle of wine important to me?... Slide # 17
300 years old…
and growing…

Recognise this?... Slide # 18

Protected Flowers blooming RIGHT next to Eucaliptus plantations?!?... Slide # 19

Priority Habitats and species from the ‘Habitats Directive’ right next
to a industrial Vineyard…?
Slide # 20
92D0pt3 – Flueggea tinctoria galleries and scrubland
6310 - Montados de Quercus spp.

Slide # 21
Taking people (even the CEOs)… to see the resuts in practice…

Slide # 22
ZONAS HÚMIDAS MONTADO RIBEIRA DO JAVARDO
MEDIDAS DE GESTÃO CHARCA
PEQUENA BARRAGEM
PASTAGENS
NATURAIS
(ABRILONGO)
PASTAGENS
NATURAIS
CULTURAS
ARVENSES
SEQUEIRO
TROÇO
INFERIOR
TROÇO
SUPERIOR
TEMPORÁRIAS
ASSOCIADAS
1. Não efectuar
mobilizações profundas
do solo
2. Utilizar os princípios da
Agricultura de
Conservação
3. Evitar o uso de
produtos químicos
próximo das linhas e
corpos de água e
monitorizar a sua
qualidade
4. Iniciar um programa de
erradicação do
Lagostim-vermelho
5. Definir e limitar o
número de vias e
intensidade dos
atravessamentos sobre
a ribeira
6. Gestão de manchas
desenvolvidas de matos
biodiversos
7. Promoção de bosques
8. Pastoreio de passagem
por vacas com baixo
encabeçamento
9. Delimitar zonas de
encharcamento
10. Manter árvores
longevas e cavernosas
11. Gestão de bebedouros
em pontos estratégicos
12. Manter os acessos
abertos na casa do poço
13. Restaurar a
funcionalidade de
corredor ecológico da
ribeira
14. Plantações/sementeiras
utilizando material
vegetal local
15. Gerir os locais de
permanência do gado
16. Gestão de matos
recorrendo à “regra dos
terços”
17. Adensamento do
Montado de Azinho em
locais a seleccionar
…In while in the field, ecologists and farmers decide what to do to value and
protect Biodiversity, how to do it and when!

Slide # 23Case Study # 1: Herdade do Freixo do Meio : 1700 Hectares of Organic Farming and
Cattle boosted by a kitty (European Wildcat Biodiversity Action Plan - Felis sylvestris)

Slide # 24
Case Study # 2: 12.000 hectares of Conservation Areas among the Eucaliptus
• Grupo Portucel Soporcel – 4 % Portuguese GNP
• One of Europe’s largest paper producer
• Forest Stewardship Council – FSC Certification
• High Conservation Value Areas - partnership with WWF;
• AmBioDiv provides a RoadMap and training to enable the
company’s skills in managing Biodiversity;
• AmBioDiv is the consultancy firm responsable for designing and
monitor Biodiversity action Plans for 120.000 hectares – 10
% MUST be Conservation Areas – 12.000 hectares
• The company has to define and establish conservation
measures, monitor species and habitats Biodiversity, promote
ecological corridors, ect;

Slide # 25
So… If we are worried with the influence of Business in
the conservation of Biodiversity (Hotspots) we can:
a) Complain, boicot, shread the newspaper, scream at theTV
b) Write editorial letters and impose complicated (to say the least)
conservation science papers to their CEO’s
c) Sit with them, help them to make less of a mess and more of a
(Biodiversity) profit, using their own language, playing their own
game

Slide # 26
A Dare…
AmBioDiv is always looking for better and more
effective ways of enhancing ‘Business &
Biodiversity Strategies’
For that, we need good sound R&D
If you’re interested in developing joint
projects,FP7, LIFE+, other, please consider us as
a potential partner!

Slide # 27
AmBioDiv ~ Valor Natural
Ambiente, Natureza e Sustentabilidade, Lda.
R. Filipe da Mata, 10, 1º Frente, 1600-071 Lisboa
Tel.: (+351) 217 975 132; Fax: (+351) 217 979 141
nuno.gaspar.oliveira@gmail com; ambiodiv@ambiodiv.com; www.ambiodiv.com
Herdade do Freixo do Meio ©AmBioDiv, 2007
Thanks for your attention!

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