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The “Observatório do Sobreiro e da Cortiça” received the signature of the cooperation protocol between Quercus and the Municipality of Coruche, within the scope of the “Green Cork” project, which aims to collect for recycling, without additional costs, the approximately 300 million cork stoppers that enter the Portuguese market every year, which allows the funds to be used for planting trees through the “Common Forest” project. Following this agreement, the municipality is responsible for creating cork stoppers collection points, accessible to the general public, and ensuring the respective transport to its facilities.
The “Green Cork” project, promoted by Quercus and Amorim, was implemented in 2008 and brings together several national partners, with emphasis on the Continent, as well as several schools, municipalities, waste collection companies, wineries, wine producers and others entities that have locally helped to make this project a success story. The economic valuation of cork, in its various applications, allows the conservation of Montado de Sobro, one of the habitats with the greatest biodiversity in Europe, and of a rural and traditional Portuguese culture linked to this agrosilvopastoral system. Since the beginning of the project, around 828 thousand trees have been distributed and planted, the result of the collection and recycling of about 380 tons of cork stoppers.
During the ceremony, the first signing contracts for the “Montado de Sobro e Cortiça” brand were also signed, within the scope of the EEC PROVERE “Montado de Sobro e Cortiça”. This brand aims to grow and include all those who, in some way, contribute to economic growth or to the development of the Montado de Sobro e Cortiça territory, as an integral part of it. All producers or service providers that create / use endogenous products from the Montado de Sobro e Cortiça or that value the resources of the natural space of the montado and that belong to the intervention territory can adhere to the brand, and this adhesion brings several advantages, such such as the use of the brand seal, participation in promotional activities in the region and access to contacts of other partners.
To date, seven entities have joined the brand: Artifices, Black Pig Gin, Entre Meios, Jacinto Rodrigues, Juncus, Montado and Flavors of Coruche, belonging to the branches of handicrafts, spirits, honey, bags and leather goods and catering.