The Cork Has Grown Back! The Ultimate Sustainable Resource.

Paul Henley of BBC News in Portugal recently wrote about Portugal’s cork oak forests. We quote directly from his article:

‘It’s not just a tree we are trying to protect here. It is a whole environment,’ says Antonio Ferreira, who has been a land owner and cork farmer in the Coruche district of Portugal for many years.

‘The forest you see around you now has been like this for hundreds of years. It is meant to be this way’.

Antonio points to the cork oaks whose roots hold the soil together in Portugal’s increasingly extreme climate, where deluges can be followed by many weeks entirely without rain.

Not only is there none of the creeping desertification here which marks much of the southern Iberian peninsula these days, there is an abundance of life.

Between the oaks, wildflowers flourish, sustaining bees and honey production. Some of the animal, bird and insect life is unique to the cork forest.

Paul has seen first hand the generational harvests that sustain the cork oaks. Here he shares with us a short video of a cork harvest:

The future of this unique Mediterranean environment is at risk. Won’t you help us Save Miguel?

Team Wicanders

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