The Relationship Between Spirit, Mind, Thoughts, Passion, and Emotion in Nature

Introduction

In this presentation a concise rationale is given to conserve landscape, semi-natural habitats and related cultural aspects in a large Natura 2000 area. It is explained why farmers and shepherds already functioned as managers of plant communities and EU directives avant-la-lettre.

So far in Serra da Estrela restoration is needed for natural communities (mainly forests) only. As for semi-natural communities’ conservation is needed and continuation of the infield-outfield system is the provisional solution until new varieties of the traditional land-use system become available meeting modern criteria for socio-economic sustainability. The living cultural landscape of the Serra da Estrela might be used as a laboratory where many interrelationships on the species, community and landscape levels can be studied in situ, which can be useful as a reference to restoration projects in similar landscapes of by-gone days in Europe. Some examples are given of functional links between agriculture and nature. Until it is known in detail and including quantitative data of how these processes function, no reliable predictions on changes in biodiversity as a result of modern alternatives can be made.

The Serra da Estrela is situated in central-east Portugal and a large part of the mountain lies within the limits of the Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela. The Park covers around 1000 km2 and is a major crossroad in Portugal’s interior ecological network (JANSEN, 2002). It has both a natural and land-use history linked to much variation in topography, geology, geomorphology, and climate. These combinations have led to a high diversity in the environment including a number of climatic and edapho-climatic vegetation series and semi-natural communities.

The phytogeographic position of Serra da Estrela is rather complicated, since in or near its territory two regions coincide, namely the Euro-Siberian region including the Euro-Atlantic province and the Mediterranean region including the Carpetano-Leonesean and Luso-Extremadurean subprovinces. The Estrela constitutes its proper phytogeographic sector (Estrellense) and around it several sectors are arranged, i.e. sector Salmantino, sector Lusitano-Duriense, sector Toledano- Tagano, sector Divisório Portugués. The Estrelean sector is usually assigned to the Carpetano-Leonesean subprovince (COSTA & al., 1998).

The temperate and Mediterranean climates meet in Serra da Estrela, but its flora includes not only species with Atlantic and Mediterranean affinities, but also Continental, Boreo-Alpine and Arctic-Alpine elements. Many European plant species attain their south-western range limits here. The area is one of the biodiversity hotspots in the Iberian Peninsula.

The diversity of vegetation and terrain provides habitats for a wide range of flora and fauna species, both native and introduced. For various reasons, biodiversity investigations have been intensified during the last fifteen years, resulting in new findings of vascular plant species, plant associations, cryptogams and even a new bird species. There are strictly endemic flora and fauna species and many species are on red lists and mentioned in the annexes of the Habitat and Bird Directive. The vascular plant flora counts nearly 1000 species, the bryophyte flora almost 400.An up-to-date survey of lichen species is lacking except for the area over 1600 m that includes some 250 species. Approximately forty mammal species and around hundred breeding bird species, thirty species of reptiles and amphibians, eight fish species and numerous invertebrate species, live in the Serra da Estrela. More than 40 phytosociological classes and well over 30 Natura 2000 habitats have been observed. (most references in GARCÍA, 2001; GARCÍA & al., 2008; JANSEN, 2002; RIVAS-MARTÍNEZ & al., 2000; VAN DEN BOOM & JANSEN, 2002).