Ganancias corporativas, pérdidas ambientales: el mayor lago artificial de Europa impulsa olivos intensivos
EL SALTO (19/10/2025) Una enorme presa construida con fondos públicos en el sureste de Portugal prometió desarrollar una de las regiones más áridas y empobrecidas de Europa. Sin embargo, la agricultura industrial de olivos está destruyendo ecosistemas y provocando la erosión del suelo y la pérdida de biodiversidad, mientras grandes corporaciones obtienen beneficios. Las hileras […]
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Western Europe’s largest artificial lake was meant to save Alentejo. It may be doing the opposite
GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE (August) The Alqueva dam promised prosperity for Portugal’s parched south. Instead, it’s fuelling a corporate-driven monoculture that ecologists and farmers warn is destroying the land and the way of life it sustained. On a bright winter morning, Eva Barrocas watches over her sheep as they graze in the olive grove her grandparents planted […]
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‘An ecocide’: How olive oil giants are using a mega dam to intensify production in Portugal
EURONEWS (13/4/25) Standing under an enormous olive tree, José Pedro Oliveira gently caresses its gnarled trunk. “It is more than one thousand years. Maybe older than Christ,” he says. Located near Serpa, in the gently rolling hills of Alentejo in southeastern Portugal, his 30-hectare olive grove is part of a mosaic of oak and fruit […]
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Where shepherds coexist with wolves
BBC (9/8/2024) “My two favourite animals are sheep and wolves,” says Miguel Afonso as he looks over his flock of 200 sheep bleating and grazing on the gently rolling hills surrounding the village of Rio de Onor in northeastern Portugal. Holding his sturdy crook, the 34-year-old shepherd doesn’t see his love for wolves as inconsistent […]
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In Portugal’s Rural North, Communities Are Resisting Lithium Mining
NEW LINES MAGAZINE (24/4/2024) Under the banner of a “green transition,” the EU is rushing to revive mining to secure critical raw materials. Plans to build large, open-pit mines in northeastern Portugal have been met with strong opposition from local communities, who are contesting the state’s authority to grant mining licenses without their consent. As […]
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The rewilding project bringing back prehistoric bovines
BBC (13/3/2024) On a cold, misty morning, a herd of dun-coloured Sorraia horses, an endangered local breed, graze on grass and small shrubs, their short and stocky bodies enveloped in the mist by the Côa river in the mountains of northeastern Portugal. As the sun rises and the mist starts to dissipate, it unveils the […]
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In these ancient oak forests, it is possible to produce while preserving the environment
WASHINGTON POST (3/2/2024) The rhythmic noise of axes whacking trees echoes in the depths of the cork oak forest. But in Coruche, a rural area south of the Tagus River known as Portugal’s “cork capital,” the bang of trees falling to the ground doesn’t follow the sound of the ax strokes. Instead, experienced workers carefully […]
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Europe’s thirst for lithium threatens livelihoods, biodiversity in Portugal
AL JAZEERA (30/1/2024) Paulo Pires walked up the hill with his flock of sheep and dogs on a warm day in August, as a stream of water gushed down an ancient irrigation channel that has been maintained by local communities over many generations. “There is a lot of wealth here,” said Pires, now resting in […]
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Lithium mining threatens agricultural heritage in Portugal’s Barroso
MONGABAY (11/12/2023) In the hills of Barroso high in northeastern Portugal, the water gushes down small channels built many centuries ago, winding through a mosaic of pastures, oak and pine forests, and arable and fallow land. Sitting on her porch overlooking a carefully kept garden full of flowers and vegetables, Aida Fernandes remembers the day […]
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Europe’s growing appetite for berries is sucking up Iberia’s water
EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL (March 2023) Autumn in Doñana National Park was once a spectacle of abundance. First the rains would arrive. Then, the birds. Journeying from Northern Europe, millions of migratory birds would descend on the wetland complex in southern Spain, heralding the start of the new season. Northern shovelers, pintails, whistling ducks, and other […]
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