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A Plant survey for a bio-park

Typical landscape of Monchique

Rhododendron ponticum

A New initiative

Environmental initiatives have always been very diverse and as the need to be green becomes an accepted part of our societies they are becoming even more so. One interesting and innovative enterprise in southern Portugal is the Monchique Bio-Parque. This "bio-park" is to be a series of natural reserves, botanical gardens and small lakes in the Monchique Mountains, connected by nearly a thousand kilometres of walkways, and is designed as a coordinated framework that will allow environmental conservation, tourism and commercial forestry to coexist.

On the basis of its twenty years of experience researching the natural environments of the Algarve, A Rocha Portugal was contracted in 2003 to undertake botanical surveys of land areas entering into this ambitious scheme.

The four study areas are sites around Foia, which at 903 m is the highest peak of the Monchique Mountains. The study areas include extensive areas of heath and gorse, as well as Sweet Chestnut coppice woodlands, pockets of native rhododendron, rock outcrops, terraced farmland and plantations. The climatic conditions of the mountains create an interesting floristic mix including both Mediterranean and Atlantic elements.

Obtaining needed data

The aims of the A Rocha project were to gain detailed knowledge of the current plant communities and vegetation types present, and to identify particularly rich and/or environmentally sensitive areas. Such information will inform nature conservation and restoration schemes in the future, as well as provide information for the environmental education and visitor interpretation programs.

Progress

Fieldwork for the Bio-Parque botanical survey took place between May and August 2003, with a report containing an evaluation of the results and recommendations being presented to the Bio-Parque consortium in September. A flora of 236 species was documented, with species such as Armeria beirana ssp monchiquensis, the orange-flowered Centaurea crocata, and majestic Campanula primulifolia being amongst the most notable. Some rare plant communities were also mapped, including shrublands dominated by Rhododendron ponticum ssp baeticum, young woodlands of Holly Ilex aquifolium and Rhamnus alaternus, and small wetland features with uncommon species such as Wahlenbergia hederacea.

However, the final stages of the project coincided with the worst forest fires known for many years in the region. Together with further fires in 2004, some 80% of the Monchique district was burned, including most of the areas studied. Whilst representing an ecological disaster and major setback for the Bio-Parque initiative, these events and their timing also presented the opportunity to monitor the post-fire recovery of plant communities, and to thereby consider how individual species and communities might respond to an increased incidence of fire in the landscape. Such monitoring is taking place in 2004 and 2005.

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For further details of the A Rocha Monchique project, contact portugal@arocha.org