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Traditional Knowledge and Biodiversity

Learning for Conserva tion and Revi talisation of Natural and Cultural Resources The Project The FUTURE – the 100,000 trees project in Porto Metropolitan Area addresses the two previously documented priority issues at the regional context: the need to expand and improve the natural capital, particularly native urban woodlands, which are related to a broader environmental quality context, and the social capital, particularly through the creation of social networks that facilitate the action, cooperation and public participation required to move the region to a more sustainable status. The project, collaboratively designed and managed, comprises the creation of 100 hectares of native woodlands in the region (100,000 trees) until 2015, mainly in areas that were previously subject to human pressures such as fire or invasive species, while simultaneously setting up a group of citizens that are aware, skilled and motivated enough to promote and care for these native woodlands in close cooperation with regional organisations. The project comprises reforestation area identification (both public and private), characterisation and selection, landowner agreements, reforestation plan design, needs listing, resource procurement (plants, machinery, professional human resources, hours of volunteer work), 32 volunteer training and coordination before, during and after field activities, partnership management, stakeholder information and feedback (website, e-mail, newspapers, facebook), centralised record keeping (species planted per area, number of trees, hours of volunteer work offered, volunteer participation in each activity, etc.), reforestation results evaluation, and planning and training sessions. The RCE Porto executive team (the Environmental Studies Group of the Portuguese Catholic University) operates as the coordinating office for the FUTURE project. The institutions most directly implicated in this project include the PMA Coordination, 10 municipalities (Arouca, Gondomar, Maia, Matosinhos, Oliveira de Azeméis, S. João da Madeira, Santo Tirso, Trofa, Valongo, Vila do Conde), Forestis (forestry association), Quercus (non-governmental organisation) and the Portuguese Catholic University. Several governmental offices are also implicated: Portuguese Youth Institute; Regional Office of the Ministry of Education (DREN), and the Regional Office of the Ministry of the Environment (CC DR-N). Several non-governmental organisations, private companies, private forest landowners associations have also joined the project. At the moment of this writing the project involves 30 organisations. Planning and Implementation As mentioned earlier, the 100,000 trees project in Porto Metropolitan Area was born in October 2010 at an RCE Porto executive board meeting. The main stakeholders absent from that first meeting were later invited and incorporated in the design phase of the project. Several one-to-one and stakeholder phone and faceto face meetings took place between December 2010 and April 2011. The objective was to consolidate the methodology, identify active partners and list both the resources needed and those provided by partners. From this dialogue several core issues arose: (1) the need to focus the reforestation efforts on a small number of pilot areas throughout the region, (2) the need to respect the various municipality agendas (reforest burned areas, create fire barriers, improve urban parks, regenerate areas dominated by Eucalyptus sp.), (3) the need to address post-planting challenges like tree replacement and short term management, and (4) the need to train and promote active citizen involvement, both in tree planting as well as previous tasks (germination/reproduction) and subsequent care. 2


Traditional Knowledge and Biodiversity
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