“New Ideas for the Forest” is a project by Expresso newspaper, supported by Navigator, which brings together, in print and online, 30 innovative suggestions from various individuals aimed at protecting and enhancing Portugal’s forest resources. This week’s contribution comes from the Director of CESAM, Professor Amadeu Soares.
Also known as riparian woodlands, riparian galleries “follow watercourses and are essential to the ecological structure of the landscape,” explains the full professor and Director of the Associate Laboratory CESAM (Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies) at the University of Aveiro. He elaborates: “They act as transition zones between aquatic and terrestrial environments, providing multiple ecosystem services,” and thus, “their ecological, hydrological, landscape, and social importance is broad and particularly relevant in areas affected by fragmentation, monoculture forestry — especially eucalyptus and pine — urbanisation, and intensive agriculture.”
All things considered, “these natural corridors increase biodiversity, facilitate species movement, and promote genetic flow between isolated habitats.” It is clear that “the restoration of riparian galleries is a targeted and effective measure capable of strategically and transversally expanding native forest cover, connecting ecosystems even in landscapes dominated by other land uses.”
This is an “intervention that can be phased and integrated into local, regional, and national management plans, prioritising degraded areas with high potential for ecological reconnection.” Moreover, it is “a sustainable solution that strengthens climate resilience, enhances the territory, and contributes to the ecological health of landscapes.”
Let us not forget that “caring for the forest also requires a human presence,” especially at a time when “the prolonged abandonment of rural areas has drastically reduced on-the-ground surveillance and broken the continuity of territorial knowledge.” For that reason, Amadeu Soares says it is “urgent to recover and reactivate the old forest rangers’ houses — public facilities now mostly abandoned, which could once again serve residential and strategic purposes.” As he emphasises, “true resilience lies in the continuity between ecology and community.”
Full article available here.