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] - unfortunatelly I no longer remember who said this).

The village of Thalheim and the surrounding countryside - Commune of Brugg, Canton Aargau.

[Portuguese post on April 4th, 2008]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

Dec. 2008: Images down to 20% of ORIGINAL SIZE (click to see). Comments closed.

[Portuguese post on Mar 23rd, 2008 - Easter Sunday]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

Dec. 2008: Image down to 20% of ORIGINAL SIZE (click to see). Comments closed.

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 1989 - 4th present version as per Decreto-Lei 278/95, October 25th 1995).

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

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Also under the Portuguese 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 1990 - 7th present version as per Rectificação 75-A/2006, November 3rd 2006).

The Tagus flood plane - REN area - near 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 reserves. The law is only for the people, not for the Government! You can read more on this subject, about Castanheira do Ribatejo - Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal.

[Portuguese post on Mar 15th, 2008]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

Dec. 2008: Images down to 20% of ORIGINAL SIZE (click to see). Comments closed.

Pictures taken during the floods (January 1996) nearby Coruche (Tagus Valley), Portugal. The trees are Cork Oaks - Quercus suber, Fagaceae family.

Our Minister of Environment thinks it's quite fine to built major complexes on the Tagus flood plane - read more on this, 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 Association of Nature Conservation (Associação Nacional de Conservação da Natureza) points out the wrong territory management policies.

The blog Um Jardim no Deserto (A Garden in the Desert) says: The citizens' tragedy, the governors' unresponsiveness! [English translation provided].

[Portuguese post on Feb 19th, 2008]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

Dec. 2008: Images down to 20% of ORIGINAL SIZE (click to see). Comments closed.

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.

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

... 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 development environment.
[Translated from Portuguese, António Pena et José Cabral, Roteiros da Natureza - Madeira, Nature's Routes - Madeira].

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.

[portuguese post on Feb 10th, 2008]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

Dec. 2008: Images down to 20% of ORIGINAL SIZE (click to see). Comments closed.

Montalegre is a municipality up in the North of Portugal, in the so called Barroso Land. The word Montalegre means Cheerful Mount.

The Barroso Land (Terra Barrosã or País Barrosão) is named after the Barroso Mountain, quite close to the Peneda-Gerês National Park (Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês), in the province of Trás-os-Montes - which means Behind-the-Mounts.

[Portuguese post on Feb 1st, 2008]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

Dec. 2008: Image down to 20% of ORIGINAL SIZE (click to see). Comments closed.

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.

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 Logistics 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 was chosen by the Portuguese Government, ignoring all the existing environmental and territorial legislation, such as the National Agricultural Reserve, the National Ecological Reserve, the Municipality Directive Plan (Plano Director Municipal) of Vila Franca de Xira and the Lisbon Metropolitan Regional Territory Management 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), on January 24th, 2007.

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 «potencial national interest», which is no longer valid, as the new airport is now to be built on the opposite bank of the Tagus.

But nevertheless, a few days ago, the portuguese Minister of Environment 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!

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UPDATE (originally on March 14th, 2008):
[On this subject, see also post (76) THE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL AND ECOLOGICAL RESERVES].

The Ministry of Environment itself has considered that this project will have significative and negative impacts, because of its dimensions in combination with this place's great natural and environmental sensitivity and the resulting traffic and transportation overflow.
And in spite of that the abertis logisticspark lisboa started on site this week... Can you believe this?

[Portuguese post on Jan 22nd, 2008]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

Dec. 2008: Images down to 20% of ORIGINAL SIZE (click to see). Comments closed.

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), on March 27th 1975.

[Portuguese post on Jan 4th, 2008]

Category: MOUNTS AND VALLEYS

Dec. 2008: Image down to 20% of ORIGINAL SIZE (click to see). Comments closed.