REN brings together schools from Ponte de Lima in a reforestation activity

Today, REN - Redes Energéticas Nacionais brought together around 130 students from the schools in the municipality of Ponte de Lima for a reforestation activity carried out in the Quinta de Pentieiros forest park. This action, part of the Native Forest Day, comes within the scope of a protocol established between REN and the Municipality to support the reforestation of the Quinta de Pentieiros forest park.

The total area reforested by REN comprises around 11 ha with, the planting of 9,000 native trees, most of them oak trees, cherry trees and walnut trees. One thousand trees, mainly oaks, were symbolically planted in the reforestation action with students from schools in the Ponte de Lima municipality.

Under the motto 'Together We Plant the Future', the programme featured a welcome speech by the Mayor of Ponte de Lima, followed by a brief presentation from REN and Quercus, at the Quinta de Pentieiros Auditorium, concerning the importance of preserving biodiversity and providing instructions on how to plant trees. Subsequently, the participants, both students and teachers from Ponte de Lima's schools, participated in the reforestation action.

Victor Mendes, the Mayor of Ponte de Lima, mentioned that the forestation plan carried out by REN enables the Ponte de Lima Municipality to reverse the situation that had been in effect since the 2016 fire, which resulted in a tremendous setback to the works developed during around a decade, with a set of other partners, thus enabling maintaining the goal of creating a forest park with multiple uses, with a strong component consisting of raising the general public's awareness towards the potential and issues associated with the forest. 

He also mentioned that the protocol established with REN is a good example of the contribution that businesses can have and should grant within the scope of their social responsibility, and that REN's availability to cooperate in initiatives of Área de Paisagem Protegida das Lagoas de Bertiandos e S. Pedro de Arcos (Protected Landscape Area of the Bertiandos and São Pedro de Arcos Lagoons), which include Quinta de Pentieiros, was shown and materialised in 2008, with REN at the time co-funding a photo book entitled 'As Lagos do Novo Milénio' ('Lagoons of the New Millennium'). 

João Gaspar, responsible for REN's Easements and Assets area, highlighted the importance of this action, 'in the scope of the company's social responsibility policy and in support of the local communities where its infrastructures are present'. 'Over the past few years, REN has sought to adjust the vegetation in its power lines' corridors, promoting the creation of a sustainable ecosystem which generates economic value for the landowners, in turn resulting in lands that are more resilient to rural fires', he additionally emphasised. 

In recent years, through the corridor reconversion actions, REN planted approximately one million trees in 2,000 ha.

REN is a member of Movimento ECO - Empresas Contra os Fogos, a civil society movement supported by the Government, with the involvement of several Portuguese companies, which aims to promote the prevention of forest fires and raise public awareness of risk behaviours.