BIODIVERSITY PRESERVATION
The future we protect
The beauty and magnificence of the Montado emerge from a symbiotic network of cooperation between the multiple species of plants, animals, fungus, and microorganisms.
The beauty and magnificence of the Montado emerge from a symbiotic network of cooperation between the multiple species of plants, animals, fungus, and microorganisms.
Montado do Freixo do Meio is the home of over 1000 registered species, both wild and domesticated, like the wild cat, iconic for being in danger of extinction, sharing its habitat with the goshawk, the Bonelli eagle, the booted eagle, the short-toed snake eagle, the purple heron, the white stork, the European honey buzzard, the Iberian newt, the pygmy marbled newt, and many other beings of high ecological importance.
The splendor of the old Portuguese oak forest, a medieval agroforestry system, if not older, resulting in a respectful relationship between nature and man, built over centuries. The beauty and magnificence of the Montado emerge from a symbiotic network of cooperation between the multiple species of plants, animals, fungus, and microorganisms. A true inspiration for our human community.
The domesticated species currently existent at Montado do Freixo do Meio take today the place and functions that the wild species had until they were extincted by us men (aurochs, zebro, sarrio, and others).
They are six of the most ancient breeds in the Iberian Peninsula, meaning they are the closest to their ancestral origin. The «barrosã» cow, the Sorraia horse, the «bagueiro» donkey and the Lusitanian black chicken.
This important Mediterranean ecosystem is a refuge of biodiversity, recognized as such worldwide, where one can find wild and domesticated life as well as observe the integration of these two worlds into an agroecological model that allow them to coexist as a system of food production with high levels of biodiversity and functionality.
Integral parts of the ancestral biodiverse forest are the gardens, the agroforests, the units of food processing, the social component of the traditional Monte Alentejano Do Freixo do Meio, and the people using it.
In spite all the effort put into the project, all these treasures we rely on are truly under threat. By the economy, by the actions of men, by climate change and other factors. During the last 50 years we lost more than half of the domesticated biodiversity created through an unmeasurable collective human effort.
Our mission is to build a community around Herdade Freixo do Meio that is democratic, inclusive, transparent, autonomous, and resilient, that achieves a constantly improving relationship with natural resources, and that encourages personal development.
