Portugal's C7 coalition urges dedicated law to protect native oak woodlands

A coalition of Portuguese environmental groups known as C7, which includes FAPAS, GEOTA, LPN, Quercus, SPEA, ZERO and WWF Portugal, has called for a specific legal regime to safeguard the country’s native oak woodlands (carvalhais). The groups say the existing legislation is insufficient to halt the decline of these habitats, which now cover only about 2.5 % of Portugal’s forest area (roughly 81,700 ha). They stress that the oak woodlands create “conditions of shade, humidity, food and shelter that sustain hundreds or thousands of plant, animal, fungal and microbial species,” store carbon, protect soils, regulate water cycles and reduce the severity of rural wildfires. The coalition attributes the loss to decades of habitat fragmentation, replacement of native stands with monocultures such as eucalyptus for the pulp industry, and indiscriminate logging. C7 urges the government to adopt a dedicated protection framework while Portugal prepares its submission to the European Commission under the EU Nature Restoration Regulation.