"Plantar Uma Árvore", which means as much as "Plant One Tree" in English, is an environmental association engaged in developing a volunteer programme dedicated to the restoration of the Portuguese native forest.
The volunteer programme functions as a civic mobilization platform through the development of volunteering initiatives that allow citizens to become involved in the promotion and conservation of the heritage associated with the Portuguese native forest and its indigenous plant species.
These initiatives aim to valorise natural heritage, to reduce environmental damage, to regenerate and rehabilitate natural areas, to promote biodiversity and to re-establish ecological functions, through the restoration of the Portuguese native forest. Simultaneously, the initiatives aim to actively encourage ecological sustainability, ecological consciousness, participatory citizenship and environmental and social responsibility.
The concrete actions performed during the initiatives give rise to environmental, social and economic benefits through the resulting synergies that contribute to a change of paradigm. This paradigm change concerns the transition to a social and environmental economy, grounded in the restoration of ecologically degraded areas and of ecosystem services, and in the sustainable ecological valorisation of natural resources with its consequent generation of green jobs and high-value products and services.
Through the inclusion of a diverse range of intervention areas and associated tasks, a wide range of practices are expected to be of use for dissemination. The development of volunteer initiates to support other organizations volunteer programmes, will allow a more technical and continuous involvement of volunteers, to improve interventions for the promotion of the native forest.