Alonso Miguel delivers forestry equipment on the island of Terceira under the LIFE IP AZORES NATURA project

March 28, 2023

The Regional Secretary for the Environment and Climate Change, Alonso Miguel, delivered equipment to the island of Terceira today, acquired under the LIFE IP AZORES NATURA project, the first integrated LIFE project approved in Portugal and the largest nature conservation project ever conceived for the Azores.

Alonso Miguel stressed that “this project, which will last for nine years, has a total budget of 19.1 million euros, co-financed by the European Union in 60%, to make a significant contribution to the conservation of species and habitat protected under the Habitats and Birds Directives, namely 13 habitat and 24 species, covering all sites of the Natura 2000 network on all islands of the Azores, on land and at sea”.

According to the governor, “the project’s intervention area on Terceira island is quite extensive, and the conservation actions cover about 341 ha, distributed by various locations, with emphasis on Terra Brava, Furnas do Enxofre, Biscoito da Ferraria, Pico Alto and Tamujal and Turfeira do Sanguinhal”.

The Regional Secretary underlines that “besides the hiring of seven field workers to implement the actions planned for Terceira island, taking into account the considerable extension of the intervention area, but above all, considering that a large part of the conservation and renaturalization actions involves the removal of large alien and invasive species, such as Tasmanian Blue Gums, Australian Blackwoods, or Sweet Pittosporums, it was necessary to proceed with the acquisition of a forestry tractor, with a set of implements, which today we place at the service of the Region, under the responsibility of the Terceira Environment and Climate Change Services, and which will be fundamental to fulfil the project objectives”.

“To give an idea of the importance of this equipment, for example, in the intervention area of Pico Alto and Tamujal alone, there is a patch of forestry production with 3000 Tasmanian Blue Gums that need to be removed for subsequent planting with native species such as Azorean Heather, Short Leafed Juniper and Azorean Laurel,” he adds.

Alonso Miguel also said that this is “an investment of about 270 thousand euros, which consisted in the purchase of a forestry tractor, with 135 horsepower, with a forestry trailer and crane, a forestry winch, a chipper and a sprayer,” adding that “30 hours of training were given to the two operational assistants from the Secretariat with a driving license for agricultural tractors to operate the tractor and the respective implements”.

The Regional Secretary assured that, with this equipment, “it is possible, from now on, to proceed to the cutting and collection of large trees in areas of difficult access, using the forestry winch, as well as to transport them, using the forestry trailer and the crane” and that “with the forestry chipper all the branches, resulting from the cutting of invasive and alien plants, can be processed and transformed into chips on the spot, and it will also be possible to spray large areas of brambles, using the sprayer, which has a capacity of 600 litres”.

The Secretary for the environment concludes by saying that “following the strong investments that have been made by the Regional Secretariat for the Environment and Climate Change, today we take another important step towards empowering the Regional Public Administration, in this case, for the protection and enhancement of our natural heritage”.