Few people know that invasive plants are one of Portugal’s biggest problems, whether in an ecological or economic context.

As the website www.invasoras.pt informs, Portuguese legislation recognized the seriousness of this problem, in 1999, a law regulated for the first time, in a comprehensive way, the introduction into nature of non-indigenous (exotic) species and listed about 30 plant species as invasive. In 2019 this first diploma was replaced by a new one, which currently lists more than 200 species of exotic plants as invasive in mainland Portugal and Madeira. This diploma prohibits the holding, breeding, cultivation and commercialization of species considered invasive species and ecological risk and makes the introduction of new species dependent on an authorization. Additionally, since 2014, a European Union Regulation has been in force throughout the entire territory of the European Union.

As our first project for a biological pool was born in the middle of the Natural Park, it was a requirement of the responsible entity to use only indigenous plants, which we fully agreed with. Since the first biological pool, built in 1995, the biological pools have not worked with any invasive species. By definition, all biological pools only use plants from autochthonous species (this means naturally original to the site). Moreover, the combination of the planted species is also the same as in nature. We try to compose the plantations just like in nature, choosing and joining the species that live together naturally. This guarantees not only a good coexistence of the species, it also eliminates maintenance actions in the plant area and guarantees a good quality of bathing water throughout the year.

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