embassy programs

2009 

U.S. Embassy Volunteers Help Reforest Portugal

Mission family getting engaged in tree planting

March 13 - On March 13, a group of twelve U.S. Embassy volunteers headed to Cabeço Santo in northern Portugal to work on an ongoing and long-term reforestation and biodiversity restoration project.

Quercus - a Portuguese environmental NGO - manages the project, which covers over 100 hectares of mountain and valley forests previously owned by a paper company and planted with invasive tree species (acacia and eucalyptus). Project Manager Paulo Domingues from Quercus oriented and instructed the volunteers, who spent two days removing invasive trees and replacing them with native Portuguese varieties such as cork oak and "medronheiro" shrubs, in order to re-establish the natural ecosystem and protect the local watershed.

This activity supports the Embassy's Lisbon Environmental and Humanitarian Outreach Program and Green Embassy initiative, both of which began in 2008.