The countryside in northern Switzerland: an excellent example!

(For all the reasons of life sustainability on Earth and also because "ugliness is also a form of pollution" [of the landscape] - sorry, but I no longer know who said this).

The village of Thalheim - Commune of Brugg, Canton Aargau.

[Originally posted on April 4th, 2008]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

Obidos Lagoon, Portugal.

[Originally posted on Mar 23rd, 2008 - Easter Sunday]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

Under the Portuguese law, the National Agricultural Reserve (RAN - Reserva Agrícola Nacional) is intended to preserve and protect the most productive soils, which are defined as RAN soils, and to ensure that they are used to develop portuguese agriculture and to guarantee a correct landscape management.
(Decreto-Lei 196/89, June 14th / 4th present version as per Decreto-Lei 278/95, October 25th).

Agricultural land - RAN soil - on the outskirts of Fátima, Ourém - Portugal.

Also under the Portuguse law, the National Ecological Reserve (REN - Reserva Ecológica Nacional) is intended to ensure the full protection of special ecological areas, designated as REN areas, as well as the related biological activities and ecosystems and so guarantee a balanced human environment.
(Decreto-Lei 93/90, March 19th / 7th present version as per Rectificação 75-A/2006, November 3rd).

Flood plane near the Tagus River - REN area - on the outskirts of Coruche, Santarém - Portugal.

NOTE: The Portuguese Government has recentely allowed for a huge construction over the Tagus flood plane, previously decreed as both agricultural and ecological reserve. The law is only for the people, not for the Government! You can read more about Castanheira do Ribatejo, Vila Franca de Xira.

[Originally posted on Mar 15th, 2008]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

Pictures taken during the floods of January 1996, nearby Coruche (Tagus Valley). The trees are Cork Oaks.

Our Minister of Environment thinks it's quite fine to built major complexes on the Tagus flood plane - read more, about Castanheira do Ribatejo...

Our Minister of Environment even thinks that the problem about yesterday's floods is the lack of cleaning... according to different sources.

On this subject, Quercus, the National Nature Conservation Association (Associação Nacional de Conservação da Natureza) points out the wrong territory policies.

The blog Um Jardim no Deserto (A Garden in the Desert) says: The citizens' tragedy, the governors' unresponsiveness!

[Originally posted on Feb 19th, 2008]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

The archipelago of Madeira is part of the so called Macaronesian Islands - Azores, Madeira and Savages, Canaries, Cape Verde.

The Laurisilva (a Laurel forest type, relict of Mediterranean forests from the Tertiary Period) is to be found only in these archipelagos - except for Cape Verde which is now too dry - "in places with very high relative humidity and low temperature's variation". It is characterized by "dense, shady and misty woods [...] where the vegetation is dominated by big trees of the Lauraceae family."
(Translated from Portuguese, António Pena & José Cabral, Roteiros da Natureza - Madeira, Nature's Routes - Madeira).

"Its natural essence is well presented by abrupt slopes, almost vertical, covered by an impenetrable and polystratified green mantle." (idem, ibidem).

"... the condensation clouds (or dense mists) occur especially from 700 to 1300 metres altitude [about 2300 to 4300 yards] and that's where the Laurisilva finds its optimum developmente environment". (idem, ibidem).

The Laurisilva of Madeira is the only Portuguese Natural Site in UNESCO's World Heritage List.

In fact, it is in Madeira Island that the Laurisilva is nowadays kept under better conservation conditions and has more endemisms (species that are native only to this Island and to no place else in the World).

The forest canopy's predominant trees are the Madeira Laurel (Til), Ocotea foetens and the Baytree (Loureiro), Laurus azorica. Among smaller tree species, there are the Madeira Mahogany (Vinhático), Persea indica and the endemic Lily of the Valley Tree (Folhado), Clethra arborea.

[originally posted on Feb 10th, 2008]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

(Montalegre means "Cheerful Mount")

The so called Barroso Land (Terra Barrosã or País Barrosão) is named after the Barroso Mountain, quite close to the Peneda-Gerês National Park, in the portuguese province of Trás-os-Montes ("Behind-the-Mounts").

[originally posted on Feb 1st, 2008]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

A very small town (vila) in the "By-the-Tagus-land" (Ribatejo), on the right bank of the Tagus River, a few kilometers North to the town of Vila Franca de Xira.

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When the Tagus is in flood, this land is submerged - several people have to use boats to go inside and come outside their homes. There's notice of people who lost all they've had, because the running waters took it all away...

And it is specifically nearby Castanheira do Ribatejo, on some of the most fertile soils to be found in Portugal and right in the middle of the Tagus maximum flood plain - with our Government's agreement and approval - that a huge construction is nowadays being prepared: the so called North Lisbon Logistical Platform (Plataforma Logística de Lisboa Norte), a major project now in progress, occupying an area of 100 hectares, extendable to 150 (one hectare is about 2.5 acres).

This location has been chosen by the Portuguese Government, ignoring the existing environmental and territorial legislation, such as the National Agricultural Reserve, the National Ecological Reserve, the Municipality Directive Plan of Vila Franca de Xira (Plano Director Municipal) and the Lisbon Metropolitan Regional Territory Plan (Plano Regional de Ordenamento do Território da Área Metropolitana de Lisboa) - as per the Cabinet Resolution (Resolução do Conselho de Ministros) nº 13/2007, January 24th.

Oh yes:

- the lettuces are in the supermarket; therefore, there's no need to preserve our fertile soils; and

- the trucks can easily move on a boat; therefore, they can quite well be driven in flooded areas.

RIDICULOUS, ISN'T IT?

There has been a public discussion by the time of the Environmental Impact Study for this Platform and the better known environmental national association has then issued a public well founded statement against this project. On the other hand, this location for the Platform was based on the idea of the new Lisbon International Airport being built nearby - there was an argument of a "national potencial interest", which is no longer valid, as the new airport is now to be on the opposite bank of the Tagus.

But nevertheless, a few days ago, the portuguese Environment Minister has officially approved the Platform location and construction at Castanheira do Ribatejo - and the environmental and local civic associations have immediately issued a new public statement against it!

[originally posted on Jan 22nd, 2008]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

Castro Marim surroundings - Algarve, Portugal.

Protected Land - Salt Marches Natural Reserve - Reserva Natural Sapal de Castro Marim e Vila Real de Santo António.

This was the first Natural Reserve defined in the portuguese continental territory, under the law (Decreto) nº 162/75, March 27th.

[originally posted on Jan 4th, 2008]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS