Mission:
Support private landowners in their efforts to restore and conserve nature.
What is a Micro Reserve?
A small area of land where an effort is made to conserve and restore ecosystems and support biodiversity.
Most nature conservation and restoration projects involve large areas of protected land and are labeled (for instance) as a National Park or Reserve. For the conservation of species and ecosystems the scale of the protected area is important which is why it is mostly projects that cover large areas that get an official and protected status.
Besides these official conservation areas there are also many privately or collectively (commons or non-profit) owned small pieces of land where people are doing their best to restore or conserve nature. These efforts might not all be run by ecologists but most of them are based in common sense and some level of ecoliteracy and support local biodiversity. Such is the case at many quintas and privately-owned lands in Portugal and elsewhere in the rural world. At Ruralis we believe that together all these efforts can make a big difference and we want to support this grass roots activity.
The plans for the Micro Reserve Initiative are:
- create a network of Micro Reserves,
- develop a Micro Reserve Method,
- develop a Tool Kit and a Resources Pool for sharing information and actual resources such as tools and volunteers.
At Moinhos do Dão Eco Quinta 2 years ago a Micro Reserve Pilot Project was started where methods and concepts for small scale restoration and conservation are tested. Other inspiring examples of promoting small scale nature conservation are the projectWe are the ark‘, Montis (active here in Portugal) and the large scale approach of European Rewilding Network.
Join the Micro Reserve Initiative!
Are your activities and/or interests related to the concept of the Micro Reserves Initiative? Do not hesitate to contact us. This is a network project that needs to be built with multiple people and projects.
Send us an email: info@ruralis.org
