Reborn from the ashes
Crowdfunding 2025
Now is the time to save the Vale da Aveleira!
Last August, a large‑scale fire ravaged the heart of the ancient woodland of the Vale da Aveleira Integral Bio‑Reserve, leaving behind a massive trail of death and destruction. This venerable forest, which developed over centuries, now sees its future seriously threatened.
Only a precise and strategic post‑fire intervention can save this unique ecosystem.
Follow this campaign here and don't forget to contribute!
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Milvoz aims to reach a target of €25,000, which will be used exclusively for the restoration of the mythic Vale da Aveleira.
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To make your donation:
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IBAN Milvoz: PT50‑0033‑0000‑45568966521‑05
MBWay: 914 311 592
For Milvoz, the Vale da Aveleira is the jewel in the crown of its Bio‑Reserve network. We used to describe this area as a true biodiversity paradise, where many centuries‑old trees of various native species flourished over centuries and gave rise to extremely rare habitats in today’s Portuguese landscape.
This Bio‑Reserve could thus be understood as a portal to the past, allowing us to witness what much of the country’s vegetation cover might once have been. Until August of this year, this place remained virtually untouched by humans, allowing nature to breathe in tune with its cycles and achieve a balance that daily makes us believe it is perhaps utopian.
Unfortunately, this summer brought some of the most destructive wildfires in our country’s history. The Vale da Aveleira Integral Bio‑Reserve, as well as a considerable part of the Serra da Lousã (of which it is part), did not escape the tremendous power of the flames — fuelled by vast pyrophytic forested areas covering the region. The scale and strength of the fire, which evolved under very high temperatures and strong winds, were such that even the ultra‑mature forests of Vale da Aveleira could not withstand its passage.
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Two weeks after the fire, our sole Integral Bio‑Reserve lies charred, profoundly affected, with little of the luxuriant green that characterised it remaining. The seed banks of acacias, which already existed in the surroundings and awaited a catastrophe like this, now have the ideal opportunity to germinate and begin invading these pristine slopes. It is time to fight against this dreadful threat, which could irrevocably compromise the recovery of this ancient forest. We need to focus all our efforts on eliminating those and any other invasive plants, thus favouring the natural regeneration of native species that are attempting to resist.
For this, Milvoz needs your help! We need financial resources to implement a strategy that will allow us to systematically traverse the series of very difficult‑to‑access valleys within the approximately 75 hectares of the Vale da Aveleira, identifying and controlling biological invasion hotspots over the coming years.
Across many areas, acacias are already germinating massively, even in the most pristine parts of the forest:
The crowdfunding campaign we now launch will allow you to become part of the solution, so that chestnut trees, Portuguese laurels, strawberry trees and holm oaks may reconstitute some of what once was there — creating the conditions necessary for recolonisation by the diverse community of other organisms that once inhabited it and on which they depended. If you are interested in helping to revitalise and give voice to the nature of this special place, together with the many people who have already shown concern about the impacts of the fire with Milvoz, please do not hesitate to lend your support.
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In face of repeated failures of the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests regarding protection of the Serra da Lousã Special Conservation Zone, it falls once again to civil society to act to protect the heritage that belongs to all of us. In the absence of responses from the Portuguese State, Milvoz will not lower its arms in defending one of the last strongholds of the most splendid biodiversity that the Central region bestows upon us.
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In the scars left on the landscape, we now find the ashes from which we will be reborn.
Come and be part of this initiative and invest in the ecological resilience of this unique and special area!
The strategy envisaged, and for which your donation will be essential, is as follows:
- Continuous monitoring and detection of biological invasion foci in hard‑to‑reach places and steep terrain
- Production of a plan for controlling and eradicating invasives (Acacia dealbata, Acacia melanoxylon, Hakea salicifolia)
- Hiring human resources (2026–2028) to carry out campaigns of removal of germination and sprouting of invasive species throughout the Bio‑Reserve’s 75 hectares
- Monitoring of natural regeneration processes
- Identifying needs for tree species seed sowing using local provenance
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The task ahead is Herculean. These are 750,000 square metres, very difficult to access, in which invasives will germinate (a situation which, just a month and a half after the fire, we can unfortunately already observe). Decades of invasive species proliferation in the mountains have led to a scenario in which seeds are accumulated almost everywhere, even in formerly well preserved and untouched areas. With the passing of the fire, their germination is now abundant, and shows us that the future of this area will be irreparably compromised if we do not act immediately.
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