Conqueiro Estate located in the Avis District of Portugal is the winner of the second edition of the "Enhancement of the Value and Sustainability of Cork Oak Forests and Associated Biodiversity" programme, an award for best management practices. The award will be given today at the time of the "Cork Oak Forests - Their Public Services Significance" workshop to be held at the "Grandolense" movie theatre. This is a joint initiative of Apcor (the Portuguese Cork Association), Grândola City Council, Grândola Farmers Association and the Department of Historical and Artistic Heritage of the Diocese of Beja.
This award is aimed at distinguishing estates and forest owners who use best practices in the management and enhancement of the value of cork oak forests and associated biodiversity. This award for good forest management practices is the result of a protocol signed among CORTICEIRA AMORIM, AFN (Portuguese Forest Authority), ICNB (Institute for Nature Conservation and Biodiversity), QUERCUS (Portuguese Association for Nature Conservation) and WWF in the framework of the European Business & Biodiversity campaign.
The award worth € 5000 was given to Conqueiro Estate, which stood out from the five finalists in the category of habitat and species best management practices, maintenance of ponds and streams and their vegetation, soil conservation and soil fertility improvement measures as well as innovative management solutions adopted by the estate. These array of good practices enables the Conqueiro Estate to achieve a harmonious balance between cork, agriculture and livestock farming and the use of management practices promoting ecosystem conservation.
At the event an honorable mention was also awarded to Sanguinheira Estate situated in the Abrantes District of Portugal for the solutions developed for cork oak forest management planning, the practices used in cork stripping and the criteria for forest infrastructure planning.
Although the management systems certification is not a criterion used in this competition, it is not surprising that the estates that have opted for the FSC forest management certification system tend to use best practices in sustainable cork forest management of cork and associated biodiversity. In this sense it is clearly apparent that from the time that this programme has been launched, all best practices award winners (Conqueiro Estate in 2011 and Machoqueira do Grou Estate in 2009) as well as honorable mention winners were certified estates, which meet FSC's® principles and criteria of good forest management.
"We are pleased to witness a growing involvement and concern of forest owners in managing their forests more sustainably. We believe that this award given to the Conqueiro Estate will contribute to the adoption of best practices in the management and enhancement of cork oak forests and associated biodiversity, by other forest owners", said Antonio Rios de Amorim, Chairman and CEO of CORTICEIRA AMORIM. The award ceremony was attended by Armando Sevinate Pinto, in representation of the President of the Portuguese Republic.
