The Greater Côa Valley runs close to Portugal’s eastern border with Spain, a landscape of rocky outcrops and montane scrubland scattered with pockets of oak woodland and open pasture. But over recent decades the landscape has been changing. Farmers and livestock have left the land, leading to encroachment of scrub and loss of the traditional diversity of habitats across the landscape. At the same time, young people have moved to cities, contributing to declines in rural communities and economies.
Changes to the ecosystem also have a devastating human cost, as the build up of woody vegetation allows wildfires to intensify and spread more rapidly. The Greater Côa Valley has the potential to act as a key wildlife corridor, lying just on the edge of the Iberian wolf population, with other charismatic species, such as Egyptian and griffon vultures and black stork, still holding on in the landscape, but many crucial pieces of the jigsaw that makes up a fully functioning ecosystem are currently missing.
Since 2019, Rewilding Portugal has been working to bring life back to this landscape, rewilding areas to restore balanced and functioning ecosystems, connect wildlife corridors and catalyse new opportunities for local communities.
To understand these changes the Rewilding Portugal team has been tracking changes in the landscape as a result of the rewilding actions. Working with the ELSP’s Monitoring Framework allowed them to select indicators to understand the both the social and ecological impacts of rewilding.
Drawing on monitoring data from the Greater Côa Valley, Dr Nancy Ockendon, Science Manager at the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme, explores how rewilding is beginning to shape the landscape.
Natural grazing to improve fire resilience
Restoring natural grazing is a key approach to addressing vegetation change and fire risk. An important focus of the project has been the introduction of populations of wild herbivores to replace the domestic livestock that have been lost from the landscape. Since 2019, 22 Sorraia horses have been introduced to roam and graze freely across the growing area of land being managed for rewilding, although it is still too early to see widespread changes in the landscape, effects on vegetation have already being recorded in the areas that are frequently used by horses.
The impact of natural grazing has been directly investigated with the construction of fenced plots within the rewilding areas, which allow a comparison of the plants in areas with and without horses. Surveys of the vegetation in these plots showed that, three years after the introduction of the Sorraia horses, grazed areas had shorter grass than ungrazed areas. These early results suggest that natural grazing is already controlling the height of fire-prone grasses, reducing the vulnerability of the landscape to fire.
However, so far no difference in the amount of woody vegetation was seen between the grazed and ungrazed areas; it may be that a greater diversity of herbivores, with different grazing and browsing behaviours, is needed to reverse the build up of scrub. The project is now exploring whether the addition of deer or wild cattle, such as Tauros, may help.
Carnivore return and coexistence
Supporting the natural return of carnivores, particularly wolves, is another important part of restoring ecological balance in the valley. One barrier to the successful establishment of wolf packs in the landscape is a scarcity of suitable prey. A study of the current distribution of key prey species such as roe deer, red deer and wild boar has revealed areas of suitable habitat that could be targeted for reintroductions or natural expansion of these populations, to ensure plentiful wild prey for wild carnivores. Meanwhile, as more areas of land are rewilded by the project, populations of these species have started to show encouraging signs of growth.
Increase the wild prey available for wolves as they return to the region will reduce the likelihood that wolves will turn to preying on livestock and causing conflict with local communities. To complement this, the team has spent time building trust with local farmers and livestock owners, to ensure that they are prepared for the return of resident wolf packs. Over the last six years, Rewilding Portugal has equipped farmers with the knowledge and materials to minimise carnivore attacks, by providing free electric and wire-mesh fences and/or livestock-guarding dogs to 47 farmers, and advice to 26 more.
Revitalising local economies
Alongside ecological restoration, the project is exploring how wildlife recovery can support local economies, by creating new employment opportunities and sources of income. The establishment of the Wild Côa Network, comprising a wide range of local nature-based enterprises, had garnered 43 members spanning food products, guest houses and wildlife tourism. There was a strong belief among network members that Rewilding Portugal is important in the socioeconomic development of the region and evidence that new clients were being received from other members of the network. However, perceptions of the effects of the network on members’ turnover and demand for their products were less clear at this early stage.
One initiative that both successfully boosted local incomes and improved human-wildlife coexistence measures was a partnership with Wildling shoes. This company produced shoes using wool from livestock owners that used best practice in terms of wolf damage prevention, for which they paid a premium price. The collaboration involved at least 7 livestock owners each year from 2022-2024, bringing a total income of nearly €11,500. These results clearly show how partnering with local communities to learn to live in harmony with wildlife can bring benefits to all.
Although six years is only the start of the rewilding journey in the Greater Côa Valley, results from monitoring show how parts of the ecosystem and the local community are already beginning to see benefits. It will be fascinating to see how the landscape evolves over future years and decades. By using carefully designed monitoring to document these changes, and sharing the results freely, ELSP projects are making significant contributions to the overall evidence base, revealing the difference that restoring ecosystems at scale can make.
This article was written by Dr Nancy Ockendon, Science Manager at the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme. To find out more about the Greater Côa Valley landscape, visit their project page.
