Vinci Airports has launched two new reforestation projects near Porto Santo Airport on Porto Santo Island, Madeira, and Faro Airport in the Algarve, with plans to plant approximately 3,500 trees across the two areas.
On Porto Santo Island, the company will reintroduce more than 1,000 trees over the next five years, with the help of the Madeira regional government and the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests. Alongside having a positive effect on biodiversity, this initiative is intended to improve water resource management.
On the mainland, Vinci Airports will work to restore the damage wreaked by the Algarve’s wildfires in 2020 on Tavira forest, which sits about 20km from Faro Airport on Portugal’s southern coast. The project will run for 30 years, with approximately 2,500 cork oaks, carobs, holm oaks and junipers being planted in the first year. The work is being carried out with the Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission, the Council of Tavira, and Portugal’s National Association for the Conservation of Nature (Quercus) and Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests.
These new projects were also designed in partnership with regional authorities, as part of the global reforestation program that Vinci Airports set in motion last June at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport.
Nicolas Notebaert, CEO of Vinci concessions and chairman of Vinci Airports, stated, “Vinci Airports is becoming involved in reforestation in all the geographies where we operate. Forests are not just our allies in efforts to help decarbonize mobility; they are also fantastic reservoirs of biodiversity. Protecting fauna and flora goes hand in hand with promoting informed and sustainable tourism, especially in these beautiful parts of Portugal where we are starting our new projects today.”