By Claire Doole
15/08/2005 - This summer António Gonçalves
Ferreira is harvesting the cork trees of his
grandparents under a hot Iberian sun. Taking
a break from the labour-intensive activity
to survey his farm, which has been in his
family for five generations, he is quickly
reminded of the age-old adage of his ancestors:
Eucalyptus trees are for us, pine trees for
our children, and cork trees for our grandchildren.
Cork trees can live up to 500 years. Although
the cork can be stripped every nine years,
it takes at least 40 for the bark to become
commercially viable. That is why most cork
farms are passed down to the next generation,
hoping they will eventually benefit from this
unique forest product.
António's farm in Coruche, an hour’s
drive north-east from the capital, Lisbon,
stretches over some 3,000ha in central Portugal
in the heart of the montados – the corklands
where cattle graze and plantations of pine
and eucalyptus grow side by side together
with cork trees. During the summer, the montados
resonates to the sound of cork bark being
stripped by axe-wielding workers. The long
broad strips are then piled up to make a ‘wall
of cork’ before being taken to the local factory
for processing into wine stoppers, insulation
materials, tiles, and shoe soles.
The harvesting techniques have not changed
greatly since António's great, great
grandparents’ day. It was in the 18th century
that the wine and champagne industry began
to use cork stoppers, which now accounts for
70 per cent of Portugal's cork production.
Today, Portugal is the world's leading producer
followed by Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Italy,
Tunisia, and France.
“The market has become much more commercial
and competitive since my grandparents’ days,”
said Ferreira. “We are doing our best to keep
up and keep the tradition going.”
Up in smoke
For Antonio Ferreira and other big cork producers
in Coruche and the neighbouring region of
Alentejo, the future looks relatively bright,
especially as their farms are large and diverse
enough to be economically sustainable. However,
in the Algarve in the south of Portugal, where
cork plantations are small, growers of cork
oak (Quercus suber) are facing an uphill struggle
for survival.
Some landowners estimate that in order to
generate an average annual income of €20,000,
their farms need to be at least 400ha in size.
According to Ferreira, one hectare of cork
yields earns about €45 per year, whereas eucalyptus,
which can be harvested for paper and pulp
after 12 years, earns €150.
In Monchique in southern Portugal, one of
the richest natural cork oak habitats in the
country, farmers have done the math and have
been readily converting to such fast-growing
species as eucalyptus…but not without a cost.
Eucalyptus trees burn much quicker than cork,
whose durable bark acts as a protective barrier.
This became most apparent when farmers in
Monchique lost 70,000ha of woodlands in the
forest fires that ravaged Portugal in 2003.
“It was tragic,” recalled Helder Aguas, president
of the Algarve Forest Producers Association.
“It was the worst day of my life when I saw
everything go up in smoke.”
Aguas, one of the biggest landowners in the
area, lost nearly all his 320ha of land. Demoralized
and bogged down by government bureaucracy,
few of his association members bothered to
fill out the compensation forms needed to
start up again. Two years on, Monchique’s
woodlands stand as a testament to the destruction.
Charred trees and stumps line the roadsides,
while fast growing eucalyptus have taken root
in the valleys.
“This species burns quickly so if the fires
come again the whole area will go up like
a tinderbox,” warns Aguas, adding that this
will be the ‘death knell’ for the local economy
which is so dependent on forestry.
Leaving the corklands behind
If that isn’t enough, many landowners have
been leaving their properties in record numbers,
some heading for the coast. As a result, absentee
landowners have made the risk of fire even
greater.
“If neighbours are not there to remove scrub,
tidy the brushwood, and create firebreaks
then the fires will spread more easily,” complained
Antonio Sousa, who has been living off his
savings since he lost 55ha of his 60ha property
in 2003.
As Portugal faces its worst drought in decades,
locals are crossing their fingers that there
won’t be a repeat of the forest fires of 2003
that destroyed 425,000ha throughout the country
– the worst fires in 20 years. According to
Portugal’s Department of Forest Resources,
over 68,000ha of forest have burned since
the beginning of 2005, of which 52,000ha were
lost in July alone.
“Fires are the first signs of abandonment,”
said Luis Silva, a WWF forest programme officer
in Portugal. “If we don't act now, we will
see an unstoppable rural exodus which will
have a major impact on the economy.”
But, the rural exodus is well underway in
the Guadiana Valley near Portugal's southern
border with Spain. In the 1960’s there used
to be 25,000 people in the region, now there
are 8,000.
Sebastiao da Luz, a retired farm labourer
has spent all of his 74 years in the village
of Amendoeira da Serra. He has seen its population
dwindle from 300 to 60 with nearly all the
young people, including his son and daughter,
leaving for jobs on the coast.
“When I was a young shepherd, it rained a
lot and the fields were green…good land for
raising animals and growing arable crops,
but now it doesn't rain in the rainy season
and everyone is worried.”
In Guadiana, most of the children of farmers
have already left, while in Monchique none
of the landowners want their children to follow
in their footsteps.
“My son is a doctor in the US and my daughter
is studying IT,” said Algarve Forest Producers
Association President Aguas. “Once the farm
becomes too much for me and my wife we will
have to sell it.”
According to Jorge Revez, head of the rural
development organization, ADPM, desertification
– caused by intensive agricultural production
and exacerbated by climate change – has been
a psychological blow to locals, particularly
farmers.
“The wastelands de-motivate people,” Revez
said. “They lose the will to become part of
the community and to act for change.”
ADPM is now working with WWF to encourage
farmers to restore desertified lands through
the planting of cork and other native tree
and shrub species to its original forest and
woodland ecosystems, and to adopt new agricultural
techniques that require less water consumption.
Cork to the rescue
Marta Cortegano, an environmental officer
with ADPM points out the cork oak seedlings
the organization is growing in its nurseries
on a 200ha farm in Monte do Vento. Although
many of the seedlings did not survive this
year's drought, Cortegano is confident that
cork can play a part in reviving the regions
fortunes.
“Cork landscapes not only have an economic
but also an environmental value,” she said.
“They help soil conservation, act as buffers
against forest fires, and retain water to
control run off and erosion, thus curbing
the impacts of desertification and climate
change.”
In June 2005, WWF, the global conservation
organization, launched a project with Portugal’s
reforestation commission and local landowners
in the Algarve, in the country’s south, aimed
at preventing large-scale forest fires in
the future. Known as the Cansino project,
it involves restoring burnt areas and redesigning
forest landscapes to make them more fire resistant.
Patches of cork oak trees will be planted
in key eucalyptus plantations as a barrier
against fire. It is hoped that the 4,000ha
pilot site, to be developed over the next
three years, will act as a model for other
degraded areas in Portugal.
“It is vital that forest and plantation owners
as well as local authorities take part in
this pilot scheme,” said José Rosendo,
president of the Algarve region’s reforestation
commission. “We are only going to be able
to combat the threat of forest fires if we
work together on improving our lands.”
WWF is currently supporting efforts by the
Portuguese cork sector – oak cork forest owners
and processors alike – in demonstrating the
responsible management of cork oak forests
through a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
certification scheme. In Portugal, 912ha of
cork land in the Alentejo region are now FSC-certified,
enabling cork manufacturers to supply the
market with the first FSC cork products.
“This is a major step for biodiversity conservation
and for the cork trade,” said Nora Berrahmouni,
coordinator of WWF’s Cork Oak Landscapes Programme.
“Cork oak forests rank among the top biodiversity
hotspots in the Mediterranean and in Europe.
At the same time, they are the backbone of
an entire economy. FSC certification will
reinforce the already environmental-friendly
characteristics of the cork economy, leading
to new opportunities in cork markets.”
The worlds biggest cork processor, Amorim,
has agreed that for next summer’s harvest
they will supply the market with FSC products
from two of its factories in Portugal.
“We are convinced there is an increasing
number of people who on popping open a bottle
of champagne are keen to toast a way of life
that is traditional, environmentally friendly,
and economically viable," said Alexandra
Lauw, a quality control manager at Amorim’s
Coruche factory.
There is a growing interest from cork producers
to comply with FSC criteria, which will not
only benefit the cork oak trees themselves,
but the intact forests that provide habitats
for the endangered Iberian lynx and Bonelli
eagle. The producers also share a strong belief
that more needs to be done to promote the
‘cork’ story and the important role it plays
in Portuguese society.
“People have been harvesting cork for generations,”
said António Ferreira from Coruche.
“We have a moral duty to carry on the tradition
for our children and grandchildren.”
* Claire Doole is Head of Press at WWF International
END NOTES:
• There are seven major cork producing countries
in the world: Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Morocco,
Italy, Tunisia, and France.
• Launched in July 2004, WWF's five-year
Cork Oak Landscapes Programme aims to protect,
manage, and restore the natural wealth of
cork oak forests by influencing the policies,
practices and markets that affect them. The
programme addresses key challenges by promoting
sustainable markets, improving governance,
changing policy, building capacity at local,
national and international levels, and demonstrating
solutions through field projects. It will
focus first on Portugal, Spain, Morocco, and
Tunisia, and is based on four inter-related
pillars including capacity building, good
practices establishment, market support, and
policy/advocacy.
• The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is
an independent, not-for-profit, non-government
organization based in Bonn, Germany, providing
standard setting, trademark assurance, and
accreditation services for companies and organizations
interested in responsible forestry. It was
created in 1994 by environmental organizations
such as WWF, Friends of the Earth, and Greenpeace;
indigenous forest dwellers; professional foresters;
big retailers such as Sweden’s IKEA and the
UK’s B&Q; and large and small forest companies.
• The FSC’s forest certification scheme is
a system of forest inspection with a means
of tracking forest products through a "chain
of custody" – following the raw material
through to the finished product. FSC certification
provides an internationally recognized label,
used to encourage and promote responsible
forest management. Increasingly, major retailers
and customers are demanding assurance that
products they source or buy come from responsibly
managed operations.
