The cork oak forest is part of one of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots, has a recognised protection status, contributes to climate regulation, is a driving force for sustainable development and plays a crucial role in the world's ecological balance.
Corticeira Amorim places major importance on knowledge of cork oak forests and improving the production of high quality cork, assuming responsibility for the preservation of the cork oak forests and their associated ecosystem services.
As a leader in the sector, it develops numerous initiatives aimed at valuing, protecting and knowledge of the cork oak forests in order to ensure more sustainable management. These actions are in line with the commitments assumed by Corticeira Amorim in terms of helping defend biodiversity and are based on guidelines that enable:
Corticeira Amorim seeks to expand sustainably managed forests in order to protect and improve biodiversity and ecosystem services.
It therefore maintains close, long-term relationships with cork producers, and fosters compliance with the CE Liège Code of Cork Stopper Practices and certification of forests. Corticeira Amorim obtained the first certification from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®), in 2004, foreseeing the future needs of the wine industry, and has been a pioneer in obtaining this certification in the cork industry.
Corticeira Amorim also continues to contribute to the promotion of cork oak forests and the cork industry as a whole, generating further research in this area. The value of ecosystem services first began to be studied by Corticeira Amorim 10 years ago. Results of the latest study, commissioned from EY in 2019, demonstrate that the ecosystem services associated to the cork oak forest on average provide overall benefits to society of over € 1,300 / ha / year.
Corticeira Amorim has been implementing the Forestry Intervention Project, which aims to preserve, improve and make areas of existing cork oak forest more resilient and at the same time introduce new silvicultural models, technologies and selected plant material that allow for more efficient new installations. and resilient in the face of predicted climate scenarios.
This Project, based on the objectives of developing cork oak stands with irrigation systems at the installation, sequencing the cork oak genome, improving the cork oak and combating pests and diseases saw the first plantations with scale, benefited by the installation of a system of improved irrigation with drip irrigation, to start in 2017. The methodology used will be applied until the first cork extraction, at which point it will be removed, and the cork oak will return to its normal growth, with cork extraction being carried out in nine-year cycles.
This installation technique makes it possible to significantly increase the success of the plantation and, at the same time, obtain greater initial plant growth, thus reducing its first exploration cycle from the current 25 years to about half of that period.
The growing need to intervene, associated with the knowledge generated in the first phase of the Forestry Intervention Project, led Corticeira Amorim to invest directly in forestry projects with the aim of studying the impacts of irrigation, fertilization, nutrition and soil in the cork oak. This action will allow, in the future, to define the best protocol to follow for the installation of cork oaks.