Viana do Castelo, Portugal, Aug. 7, 2025 (Lusa) - The preservation of mountain ecosystems in Portugal must include "a strategy to protect water" and its supply to cities, particularly from the northern Peneda-Gerês region, a researcher argued on Thursday.
“There must be a concern for the preservation of these mountain ecosystems and for the preservation of activities that favour their resilience to fires as part of a strategy to protect our vital water resource,” warned Joana Nogueira, from the Higher Agricultural School of the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo (IPVC).
When ecosystems are affected by the decline of traditional activities, as has happened in the Peneda-Gerês National Park (PNPG), their biodiversity is less protected and more vulnerable to fires, which can affect the water supply, not only in the region but also in cities.
"This supply can be affected, with higher costs for treatment or to ensure supply. Its quality and quantity are affected," said the professor, who has studied the role of communities living in Peneda-Gerês and the role they play in "preserving the integrity and diversity of ecosystems," in relation to the fire that started on 26 July in the PNPG, in Ponte da Barca, in the region of Viana do Castelo.
According to Joana Nogueira, this issue "is important even for those who do not visit the National Park", although it is"little understood by society".
“The mountains, such as the Peneda, Gerês and Amarela mountains, all the mountains that make up the PNPG, act as water collection systems that depend on this balanced landscape, this landscape with high biodiversity and agriculture and human presence,” warns the teacher.
Ultimately, all this "ensures that the soil and vegetation are maintained and that water infiltrates and continues to flow".
“In the future, we will have increasing water shortages and this is an ecosystem regulation service in which the water that arrives via the Cávado River in Braga and the water that arrives via the Lima River in Viana do Castelo comes from the mountain systems,” she stressed.
With fires such as the one that broke out on 26 August and was active until Sunday, that soil "becomes vulnerable, exposed, the roots are destroyed" and with the rains and winds "soil is lost".
This means less vegetation to retain water when it rains, and this means "less water to feed the rivers and for these rivers to feed the springs and the water supply of the cities," she points out.
“Not to mention the quality of the water we have in our homes, the drinking water. It is very important, and has been clearly demonstrated by several studies in Portugal, that the reduction in numbers of people who live in the mountain regions and the abandonment of agriculture and pastoralism are related to an increase in fires and a greater risk of fires,” she stresses.
The PNPG covers the regions of Braga (district of Terras de Bouro), Viana do Castelo (district of Melgaço, Arcos de Valdevez and Ponte da Barca) and Vila Real (district of Montalegre), covering a total area of around 70,290 hectares.
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