In October 2023, Win-Win Textiles launched our reforestation event, which will take place annually. Next time in January 2025. This effort is part of the initiative Guimarães Mais Floresta (Guimarães more forest) with a target to plant 30.000 trees until 2030 in the area and we hope to be able to make a solid contribution over the coming years.

The plantation of trees was carried out in two phases. In October we planted the smaller trees and in February 2024 the big trees were planted by the professional plantation team of the Municipality of Guimarães.

We managed to gather 14 other local businesses to help fund the event and the aim is to reduce the monoculture eucalyptus trees, an invasive species not native to the area and representing an increased risk of forest fires. Eucalyptus was first brought by Europeans from Australia in the late 18th century. The trees have taken over huge areas in Portugal and seem to be the only trees surviving forest fires. Eucalyptus is changing the local ecology. The eucalyptus is constantly shedding bark and these loose strips easily catch fire, as do the leaves on the ground. The strips tend to carry fire up in the canopy, casting embers outward and the strips can fly more than a
kilometre with the wind, thus spreading fire easily over big areas.

The objective of our project is to replant areas of lost vegetation as well as substituting the eucalyptus trees in the area. This is in line with the objectives of Guimarães mais Floresta:
– Reforestation of degraded areas, lost vegetation or public areas destroyed by fire
– Reinforcing root systems in the soils, preventing soil erosion and consequent collapses of steep areas close to roads and habitation
– Reinforcing the ecological corridors of the Penha mountain, making protection and preservation possible
– Plantation of only native species, which are resilient to climate change and adapted to the conditions of the local area
– Promoting the necessary changes of the soils of the Penha mountain, substituting Eucalyptus trees with native species and possibly obtaining protection of this local area
– Promoting the green urban infrastructure
– Using the plantation of trees to compensate carbon emissions.

The first phase of the plantation of the new trees was carried out by the staff of participating companies on the Route of Biodiversity, which is a path up the mountain, Penha. See the presentation in the video.

We planted:

Big trees:
30 Sycamore maple trees
44 European beech trees
36 White Iberian birch trees
52 Common oak trees

Small trees:
20 Common oak trees
70 Narrow-leaved ash trees
70 Wild cherry trees
50 Strawberry trees
50 Hawthorn trees

Combining effort of the civic society, companies and the public sector creates so many synergies and we all need to identify ourselves with these. We managed to engage companies and people and it looks promising for the coming years.

We ended enjoying a big buffet, where all participants contributed to the table. As often in these cases there was way too much food. The same evening all the excess food was enjoyed at dinner tables around our town by families in need, distributed through Re:Food. A fantastic project we support to fight food waste. Re:Food collects food rests from supermarkets & restaurants and assemble meal packages for families, who can order them as they need.

We thank these great companies for helping our biodiversity and hope to see more companies joining in January 2025: Cristêxtil Confecção Lda – Positive Materials – EIGUI-Malhas e Confecções, S. A. – LUIPEX – Yogadhipa Yoga Studio – ETISATOS – RdA Climate Solutions – Foco Criativo – Sebastião & Martins SA – PIEP – Innovation in Polymer Engineering – Guimabus – Transportes de Guimarães – Laboratório da Paisagem – NOVA Legal