The Regional Event on Agroforestry organized by the AFINET project in Portugal took place on 13rd September at the Observat\u00f3rio do sobreiro e da corti\u00e7a in Coruche Municipality.\u00a0The program included time for the 5th RAIN meeting.<\/p>\n
After a period of promoting the event, about 50 attendees took part on event which also included a field visit to young cork oak stands close to the age of their first cork harvesting.<\/p>\n
Joana Amaral Paulo (the Innovation Broker) hosted the meeting, which had several speakers: Axel Gosseries (researcher and professor at several universities), via skype, talked about his personal project \u2013 the Herdade das Cebolas, where he practices agroforestry implementing soil and vegetation regeneration, mostly through the installation of small ponds and swales; Joana Paulo (ISA\/CEF) spoke about hedges, reinforcing their protective role but also their productive possibilities; Margarida Tom\u00e9 (ISA\/CEF), talked about thinning in young cork oak tree plantations, mainly about tree competition versus the available information on cork quality; S\u00f3nia Faias (ISA\/CEF) presented the results of an 18 year old case-study on cork oak stands understory management, its impacts on the tree and cork, the subject-matter of her ongoing PhD; and Ana Raquel Felizardo (ISA), who also spoke about cork oak stands understory management, but its impacts on the soil, discussing sown pastures versus natural pastures.<\/p>\n
Lastly, Joana Paulo presented the already available AFINET project materials and debated the possibility of the project aims continuity after its ending: \u201cwhat about after 2019?\u201d. After each presentation, the attendees were allowed a few questions.<\/p>\n
After lunch, there was a field visit to young cork oak stands around the Coruche area, where the attendees had an ample opportunity to ask questions to the farm owners and the speakers who were present.<\/p>\n
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