"Discovering the Laurel"

Last Monday strated the scholar program, which guesses to be full of activities, knowledge and fun.

The Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds, through Environmental Center of Priolo, in the ambit of the project Life Sustainable Laurel began its program of activities for schools with "Discovering the Laurel," a unique opportunity for students of the 5th year of the Basic and Secondary School of Nordeste that through a field trip visit sites where the Laurel Forest is present, where of singular beauty the natural forest of the Azores appears.

This activity consists of a set of plant identification where the students just need a field notebook with pictures and some clues about the plants that form the Laurel Forest and and about the ones that threat this forest, a pen and a deal of attention and interest is all that is needed to learn more about our natural heritage.

This activity has been developed over the past two years and assumes an important vehicle to raise awareness of the preservation of the natural vegetation of the Azores and its problems.

The questionnaire completed by the end aims at assessing the knowledge resulting from the activity developed. The students had maximum grade as they correctly answered all the questions, leaving the technical team with a huge smile and great satisfaction. We hope to have taken one step towards the conservation and preservation of this forest that is threatened.

This Monday, in the course of the activity, the students also had the rare opportunity to observe a species of bird that sometimes visit us at this time of year, coming from the Arctic areas, a Snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis).

André Batista, Coordinator of the Environmental Center of Priolo

www.centropriolo.com

Nordeste hosts Forum for the Sustainable Tourism

The II Forum for the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism (ECST) in the Lands of Priolo will take place on October 14th, at 2 pm in the Centro Municipal de Actividades Culturais de Nordeste. The main purpose of the ECST in the Lands of Priolo is to conciliate the economic sustainable development of the populations in these areas with the conservation of Priolo and his habitat. The Forum continuous the process that has been bringing together the several partner entities, as well has all the interested businessmen that develop the activities related to tourism, handicraft and the restaurant trade, in the Lands of Priolo.

In this II Forum it will be debated the Strategy of Sustainable Touristic Development in the Lands of Priolo, developed through the propositions presented by all the participants in the first Forum, that took place in Povoação and that has the support of the entities that promotes this process (Direcção Regional de Turismo, Direcção Regional dos Recursos Florestais, Câmara Municipal de Nordeste, Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves, SPRAçores e Associação para a Promoção e Desenvolvimento Rural – ASDEPR).

With the participation of all the interested parties, the main purpose in this Forum is to present proposals to the Action Plan for the next 5 years, with tangible measures that have to be adopted by everyone involved, with the intention of reaching all the defined objectives in the Strategy.


This process lays in a participated methodology, in which the entities, the businessmen and the interested local people are invited to contribute to define the type of tourism that are pretended to be developed in this territory, having always the intent in economic, social and ambient sustainability. All the interested in participating can do so through the website http://cetsmarcapriolo.blogspot.com.

The main purpose of the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism, of which the first forum took place last May, is to enrich the natural and cultural patrimony of Povoação and Nordeste promoting partnership and synergies creation between the economic agents, the institutions and the responsible for the nature conservation in a way that guarantees profits to the local people.

After the Forum the Guide “Azores – Lands of Priolo” will be presented. This Guide has a set of information related to the plant and animal life in the ZPE Pico da Vara/Ribeira do Guilherme, as several informations about the towns from both councils, gastronomy, walking trails and other information of ambient and touristic interest.

Excavator finishes works in just Graminhais

On last September 30 the first phase of the work done in the Peats of Planalto dos Graminhais has ended. This work had the help of an excavator hired from the company Duarte Brothers.

During the last 3 months Doosan excavator and its engineer Eduardo worked in the execution of several works for the recovery of the peats, opening walls for the circulation of water, in the construction of dikes and drainage ditches and in the early recovery of an old trail. This job required expertise and was completed in the planned time.

The impact of this machine in the peats was very low and much lower than it would be if only human power was used to accomplish the same work.

In conclusion, the work was completed in less time and with less impact on the peats with the use of the excavator! And, of course, with a great job supporting the field team of Life.

Although the bulk of the machine work was carried out this summer for the next year there's more! The results so far are very positive and we expect the recovery of this area of ​​peatland will be a success.