Early this spring we were the guests of the Faia Brava
Reserve and of Campanários de Azaba Biological Reserve, Rewilding
Europe’s two local partners in Western Iberia, right on the border
between Spain and Portugal. Campanários de Azaba Biological Reserve, the
two partners of Rewilding Europe in Western Iberia. Five fantastic days
in the wilds.
Dehesa forests with Holm oak (Quercus ilex) and French lavender (Lavandula stoechas) in Campanarios de Azába Reserve
Staffan Widstrand / Rewilding Europe
Faia Brava
There is no need to make a reservation when you travel by train from
Porto to Pocinho in Portugal. It seems like very few are travelling
there. Over the last decades most people moved out from this area near
the border with Spain. As the train followed the Douro River, more and
more people got off, so when we arrived in Pocinho, it was not difficult
for Bárbara Pais to recognize this Dutch family with its luggage.
Bárbara is our guide on the first day in the Faia Brava Reserve. She
explains why people left their properties around here. ”Since the 1960’s
people abandoned this area, because they couldn’t make a living here
anymore. For example: almonds from California were cheaper than those
from Portugal. The villagers got other jobs and left for the cities.’’
As we drive through small villages, we only see elderly people in the
streets. Most of them already long ago passed the age of sixty.
Nevertheless there are newly built playgrounds for children,
surprisingly. ”That’s because of the European subsidies,’’ Bárbara
explains.
Since the people left farming and grazing lands, nature is now
getting a second chance. Associação Transumância e Natureza (ATN) made
Faia Brava into the first private protected area in Portugal. The
organisation buys land from farmers who quit farming or from families
whose ancestors abandoned their fields already long ago. That is not an
easy job; the Faia Brava area alone had over a hundred different land
owners that ATN have had to negotiate with.
More than 800 hectares of nature lies in front of us as
we enter this part of the Faia Brava Reserve. Olive trees and cork oaks
are the remainders of the agriculture period. Lavender and Spanish broom
are the new pioneers. This area has a quite extreme climate.
Nove meses de inverno, três meses de inferno. This is how the Portuguese call the big influence climate has on this area: nine months of winter (
inverno), and three months of hell (
inferno). We feel lucky to be visiting Faia Brava at the end of April, when nature here maybe is at its best. On our first day here
we went for a walk. We even encountered a herd of wild-living Garrano
horses with their new foals.
Ana Berliner, the owner and operator of Casa Cisterna Bed and Breakfast.
Staffan Widstrand / Rewilding Europe
Castelo Rodrigo is a small historical village here, where we spent a
great night at “
Casa da Cisterna”. Ana Berliner, the owner of this Bed
& Breakfast surprises us with a really delicious meal in her cosy
house. As Ana is a biologist herself, she also has a big library with a
lot of nature guides. Up here it gets a bit chilly outdoors during the
night and we have a clear view of the stars.
The following day we enter again the Faia Brava Reserve, now in a
Land Rover Defender from ATN. It’s a bumpy trip along an old path with
stone walls through the former farming fields. Villagers named it the
Caminho de Formigas
(the ant road), because people always used to carry stuff along this
road when they left the village at sunrise or came back from the fields
at sunset.
“The local people are not always happy to give up the lands of their
ancestors,’’ João Quadrado tells us Project officer of ATN. ”A lot of
emotions are involved. For example; it takes around 50-60 years before
you can harvest cork from a cork oak. So if your father has planted a
cork oak tree for your children, you don’t easily sell your land.’’ João
is from around here, so he knows how that feels. ”A while ago I was on
my grandmother’s land and I remembered how we used to pick olives
together.’’
In the early morning the olive trees are crowded with birds and there
is bird song all around us.
João provides us with binoculars and points
out many colourful birds like bee-eaters, hoopoes and crested larks.
Through the binoculars we also check out a vulture’s nest and we see the
horses again. Along the valley, there is a string of white, round
houses in traditional style. These used to be pigeon houses, that the
farmers here built long ago, because they used the pigeon’s droppings to
fertilize the land. ATN is working to preserve and restore them, as a
traditional part of the landscape.
We notice lots of tracks from wild boar. They are numerous because
there aren’t any large predators left in this area; the wolf was made
extinct long ago. “But there’s hope for the future”, says João. “Wolves
have been seen nearby recently, it is only a question of time until they
are back.’’ When animals die in Faia Brava, the vultures take care of
them. ATN also feeds the vultures with road kills and dead livestock
animals, at a special feeding place where photographers and others who
want to can watch the feeding vultures from inside a hide. ”In Portugal,
we have two million hectares of abandoned land today’’, João tells us.
”We have decided to look at this also as an opportunity. We don’t have a
detailed, specific end goal for nature in Faia Brava, it’s really
rather the process of regeneration and rewilding. We would like a more
natural number of trees and more of the original herbivore species and
ATN is working on that’’.
After seven hours of wandering and wondering in the reserve, the road
back to town is just as bumpy as it was this morning.
Quintã de Pêro Martins is the village where we spend the second night. Sara and Miguel
are the friendly hosts of this Bed & Breakfast, and they even lent
us their dog Beckas for an evening walk around the village. This couple
also knows al lot about the prehistoric rock engravings that have been
found here in the Côa Valley.
Campanários de Azaba
Griffon vultures in Campanarios de Azaba Biological Reserve
Juan Carlos Muñoz Robredo / Rewilding Europe
On our third day, we leave Portugal to go to Campanários de Azaba in
Spain. Diego Benito Peñil is our guide for the following two days. Diego
works for Fundación Naturaleza y Hombre, which also is the local
partner of Rewilding Europe. He shows us an area called Riscos de Águeda
and we immediately witness the striking difference with Portugal: this
is a rolling area in stead of hilly and the fields are bigger and more
open. Around here not the farming has dominated, but rather the
livestock raising. “And the noble families in Spain used to own big
territories,‘’ Diego completes. “But just as in Portugal, most of the
young people moved to the cities, leaving an opportunity for nature”.
Surprisingly, the Spanish broom is still flowering here which it
wasn’t anymore in Portugal. So there are white flowers everywhere around
us as we walk into the fields to a steep river canyon. We eat tortillas
de patata, while listening to singing corn buntings. After lunch, we
hit the road again. As we travel higher, the forest changes from mainly
oaks to pine trees. Diego points out a small group of Iberian ibex on a
steep hill. Close to the top of the mountain, there is a large monastery
and even more ibex, a mother with a few youngsters. Swallows, swifts
and vultures dot the sky.
Diego then takes us to the Campanários de Azaba Reserve, where he
lives with his family. After closing the fence, we immediately encounter
a group of cows. That is special, because they have 500 hectares to
wander around. His wife Ruth treats us to a great meal and an even
greater view over the reserve. Around here it’s so quiet in the evening!
Magnificent!
Next morning we get up early and prepare for four hours in a hide,
waiting to see the vultures up close. Diego brings us to the feeding
place and puts out a bunch of dead chickens right in front of the hut.
Now we only have to sit and watch, until the vultures will come to have
their dinner. First come the ravens, the black kites and the red kites.
They seem to check that there is no danger and they are closely watched
by the vultures, who are soaring around a bit higher up in the sky. We
thought we would maybe see only a few vultures, but to our surprise
almost fifty vultures attack the dead chickens after almost two hours of
waiting. Both black vultures griffon vultures. They make a lot of noise
and leave us speechless in the hide. And yes, they are really big and
almost frighteningly close, but in a way also really beautiful.
As suddenly as they arrived, the vultures then quickly leave after
finishing their lunch. When we leave our hide, we collect some huge
vulture feathers in the killing field. The only thing left of the
chickens are some white feathers. There are also some remains from
previous vulture lunches on horses and sheep. It’s a bit weird walking
in this vulture restaurant with bones lying around. You can smell death,
but lavender as well.
Retuertas horses living wild in the Campanarios de Azaba Reserve
Staffan Widstrand / Rewilding Europe
After having to sit still for such a long while, we felt we needed
some exercise. Diego takes us for a three hour walk through the reserve.
He shows us a fox den where we hide a camera trap, which will take
pictures when the foxes leave their home during the night. We also pass a
hide with a chimney, especially built to watch wild boar from (so that
they can’t feel your smell). Walking through the reserve is a really
fantastic experience. The landscape is a genuine mosaic. You see new
kinds of trees and flowers every five minutes. And there are lots of
lizards. An ideal place also for the rare Retuertas horses, who live and
roam here on their own.
On our final day there, we make a last short walk and then we leave
Campanários de Azaba for Portugal. We really enjoyed this trip in
Western Iberia. It’s a beautiful wilderness experience and we hope to
come back here soon again!
Rianneke Mees
visited Faia Brava and
Campanarios with her husband Johan Mees, the winner of the Western
Iberia trip in the December 2013 draw of the Travel Club of Rewilding
Europe
No fim-de-semana passado realizou-se a VII edição do Curso Intensivo de Identificação, Biologia e Conservação de Aves de Rapina. O curso contou com a presença de 5 formadores de excelência no território da beira alta e interior: José Jambas, Ricardo Brandão (CERVAS), Carlos Pacheco, Jorge Amaral (ICNF) e João Quadrado.
.jpg)
.jpg)
