Program Biologia no Verão with positive balance

The Biologia no Verão program ended on September 15th. Since July that SPEA has developed several activities under this program, with a very positive final balance, with about 94 participants in organized activities over the past two months.

The first year of participation in the SPEA Biologia no Verão program was in 2009. Since then that SPEA has been maintaining this partnership by organizing various activities every summer all over the country.

In the case of the Azores, through the Life Sustainable Laurel Forest Project  and the Priolo’s Environmental Center, activities took place in the municipality of Nordeste and Povoação. Thus, the SPEA organized five different types of activities, a total of 17 sessions and attended by 94 people.

The activity "Priolo – a Tronqueira Treasure" was performed 4 times, with a total of 34 participants. The activity consists of a journey undertaken on the Tronqueira road in order to observe and visit Priolos in their natural habitat - the laurel forest, also getting to know a little bit more about the threats and conservation actions developed. Participants also have the opportunity to visit the Priolo’s Environmental Center.

On what concerns to the activity "From Seed to Plant", it took place every Friday, with 9 sessions with a total of 21 participants. This activity consists on a guided tour to the Life Sustainable Laurel Forest Project nursery of endemic and native plants of Azores with an explanation of all the stages of the production of these plants.

There was also an activity dedicated to the peatlands of Graminhais. This is a rare and considered a priority habitat and is already very scarce and decay on the island of São Miguel, Azores. In a visit to the Graminhais Plateau, located in Special Protection Area Pico da Vara / Ribeira do Guilherme (SPA) participants had the opportunity of getting to know this habitat, its characteristics, particularities and the importance of its conservation. They also had the opportunity to go on a small trail in which they can observe the recovery actions in the area carried out by the Life Sustainable Laurel Forest Project . "Meet the peatbogs", had a total of 2 sessions and 12 participants. Unfortunately this is an area with bad weather which motivated several dropouts.

The activity "Get to know a conservation project," was performed once and had 15 participants. This activity is a guided tour to the conservation actions undertaken by the Life Sustainable Laurel Forest Project  in Serra Tronqueira and the Plateau of Graminhais and seeks to present the major conservation actions undertaken to date in two priority habitats in the Azores (Laurel Forest and peatbogs).

One of the activities that SPEA performs more times throughout the year is "Keep an eye on the birds", within the Biologia no Verão program, was performed once with a total of 12 participants and took place at the Lagoa das Furnas. This activity is based on the observation of birds in fixed point, where participants have at their disposal some optics material (binoculars and telescope), as well as didactic material (bird guides), being assisted by a technician in identifying bird species that are observe, throughout the duration of the activity.

The Biologia no Verão program allows everyone to get to know some of the flora and fauna around them and have greater contact with nature. For SPEA the results were very positive in the summer of 2012 and we count on you next year.