As foreseen in Pilot Action A.06, Portuguese ELCN Project partner Montis seeks to bring land management where it lacks to create more biodiversity, more richness and more social value, with the community’s involvement. For this purpose, they intend to buy marginal land that in the recent past was important to the rural economy, but nowadays has no social function and is very vulnerable, namely to large wildfires, due to decades of abandonment.  The goal is to give a hand to the natural processes to increase biodiversity and the landscape resilience in order to become more useful and pleasant to a larger variety of species. They are doing so through a crowdfunding campaign that can be found here in case anyone would like to make a donation - which naturally would be highly appreciated! 

In the Açor mountain range (Pampilhosa da Serra), an area in great risk of violent wildfires due to the abandonment of the territory, Montis has signed a promise to 'buy contracts' for 3 land plots to where we plan to bring our model of open management, involving the society in the support of natural processes. In the Caramulo mountain range (Vouzela) they have a spoken agreement to buy 13 plots of lands close to the 5,5 ha that was already bought after a 2014 crowdfunding campaign. These plots, as well as the entire surrounding area, were burnt in a severe wildfire on October 15, 2017; the signing of the deed of sale depends on solving a couple of problems with the properties register. In the Arada mountain range (S. Pedro do Sul) they are negotiating the purchase of some plots contiguous to the 100 ha of common land that Montis already manages and where they have applied all their panoply of resources to engage with the community through volunteering, and the support of natural regeneration processes, natural engineering and prescribed fire techniques they prefer. The value of the last plots of land (Arada) is not included in this campaign as it is a situation that requires some time to discuss. It will serve as an alternative if the sale of the plots in Vouzela does not go through.

This campaign will finance the purchase of this land, and all the amount that exceeds what we ask will be used in the purchase, still in negotiation, of the plots contiguous to the common land of Carvalhais, in the Arada mountain range or any other land that they can negotiate.