The??says, “forests are among the largest carbon and biodiversity reservoirs on Earth, crucial for mitigating climate change and providing essential goods, services, and livelihoods.” Yet, the same document warns that “nearly 100 million hectares of net forest area have been lost over the past two decades” and “global forest coverage decreased” to 31,2%. This is naturally not in alignment with the?, particularly its?Goal 15.
As a response to this trend over the past few years, the?Plant the Future?initiative was born in 2018 from a partnership between the?, a member institution of the?United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI)?in Portugal, the youth association Agora Aveiro - Association for the Promotion of Active Citizenship, and the Municipality of Estarreja, a city in the northwest of the country, with the commitment to secure and promote the native forest and its value in climate change mitigation, fire resilience, and biodiversity conservation.
The initiative also promotes environmental education, thus contributing directly and indirectly to the recovery of the native forest. It is actually considered an expansion of an already existing project which was developed in 2014 by a group of students of Biology at this institution of higher education. It is based on the idea that small actions can indeed have a significant impact. The entire academic community, which gets involved, is challenged to adopt an autochthonous tree, take care of it and, finally, plant it, helping to build a forest.
Hélder Berenguer, Project Manager of the youth association Agora Aveiro commented on the impact and active participation of the community in this initiative: “This year there was a significant increase in participants compared to the previous edition, which demonstrates the interest and concern of young people and the entire academic community for the environmental issues and challenges we face.” For the university itself, this project not only plays a crucial role in the strategy adopted to reach carbon neutrality.
It also, the institution argues, contributes to the acquisition of soft skills and the integral development of students, promoting values such as solidarity and commitment. Carlos Correia, one of the volunteers this year, said it was “an opportunity to get in touch with nature.” “I had never planted a tree in my life, and when I tried, I found it very interesting, and that lasts a lifetime,” he explained. “This action is a two-in-one, reforesting and planting autochthonous species,” added Miguel Azevedo, a 1st year Engineering Physics student.
Alder, arbutus, black poplar, ash, white willow to chestnut, Pyrenean oak, or Alvarinho oak are some of the autochthonous species distributed and planted with this initiative, that takes place in clearly defined steps. First, small native trees are purchased from a certified local producer, which are later transplanted into larger pots to allow for their growth and development. Then, trees are watered and maintained by a technical team of the Municipality, in their own greenhouses, until the so-called 'adoption' phase.
The latter is followed by handing over the trees to the academic community. Then, adopters take care of their trees, with the constant support of the project monitoring team, and participate in several reforestation actions and control of invasive plants. After being planted, the trees are taken care of by the technical team of the Municipality to make them grow and create a forest. For Liliana Oliveira, an employee of the university, the core importance of the initiative is that in practice, it helps to raise awareness of environmental issues.
“It has another major impact because we are reforesting an area that burned and that of course, the planet needs,” she commented. Moreover, the private sector has been involved as well in the initiative. “We take sustainability very seriously, and everything that allows us to contribute to this cause, we join, and we participate,” said Lourdes Figueiredo from RODI, a Portuguese company. Overall and through the project, many trees have already been planted in the National Forest of Bu?aco and the Municipalities of Albergaria-a-Velha, Lousada, and Estarreja.
University students are also being educated on the critical aspects of sustainability and how it interconnects with the environment. With the scientific support of the Department of Biology of the university, dedicated guides which have been widely disseminate, were developed on how to care for trees, with information about the native species used in the project, invasive alien species, and the Portuguese forest. With the initiative now in its seventh year, over 4,800 trees have been planted with the involvement of more than 600 volunteers and 3,000 adopters.
