Source: Vinci Airports

  • VINCI Airports, via its subsidiary ANA, which holds the concessions for Portugal’s 10 airports, recently launched two new reforestation projects near Faro airport in Algarve and Porto Santo airport in the archipelago of Madeira. These new projects were designed with and for their local area, and in partnership with regional authorities and the country’s leading forestry experts. They are part of the global reforestation programme that VINCI Airports set in motion last June at Lyon-Saint Exupéry airport with the Rhône departmental council and the French National Forest Office (ONF).

On Portugal’s southern coast, about 20 kilometres from Faro airport, VINCI Airports will take part in work to restore Tavira forest, which was damaged by the wildfires in Algarve last summer. The project will last 30 years and is being carried out with the Algarve region’s coordination and development commission, Tavira city council, the national association for the conservation of nature (Quercus) and the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests. Some 2,500 cork oaks, carobs, holm oaks and junipers will be planted between now and the end of the year.

On Porto Santo, alongside the Madeira regional government and the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests, VINCI Airports will take part in the reforestation and upkeep of the island’s woodlands by reintroducing more than 1,000 trees over the next five years. Besides having a positive effect on biodiversity, this initiative will improve water resource management in this fragile environment.

Nicolas Notebaert, Chief Executive Officer of VINCI Concessions and Chairman of VINCI Airports, stated: “VINCI Airports is becoming involved in reforestation in all the geographies where we operate. Forests are not just our allies in efforts to help decarbonise mobility: they are also fantastic reservoirs of biodiversity. Protecting fauna and flora goes hand in hand with promoting informed and sustainable tourism, especially in these beautiful parts of Portugal where we are starting our new projects today.