20 January 2023
Cork production – at the heart of the Montado agroforestry system
The next time you uncork a bottle of wine or pop the champagne spare a thought for that little cork stopper and where it has come from. Noel Kennedy tells us more.
Cork is amazing and has been described as nature’s most versatile material. As well as being a superb wine stopper, cork is a unique and versatile material produced from the bark of cork oak trees. Used by ancient civilisations for millennia we are now rediscovering its incredible properties.
It is light, impermeable, and used to produce everything from clothing to spacecrafts. Cork is harvested without cutting down any trees, which makes it a reliable and sustainable material. It is also reusable and recyclable.
Native to the warm dry climate of the Western Mediterranean, cork oak is extensively grown in Portugal using a traditional agroforestry system called Montado.
The Montado is an example of an agroforestry system based on an open cork forest associated with grazing activities, crop production and several other interdependent production systems contributing to economic and environmental sustainability.
Teagasc colleague John Casey and I visited a Montado agroforestry farm as part of a recent FAIRshare project cross visit to Portugal organised by hosts 2BForest.
Located south east of Lisbon, the farm in Sesmarias combines the production of cork oak, holm oak , stone pine and eucalyptus with a main cattle enterprise using the traditional agroforestry system.
The cork is harvested every seven years, as controlled by legislation, and we saw the sections of bark removed with the year of harvesting painted onto each tree. With cork trees potentially living up to 200 years there is multiple harvesting followed by healthy and sustainable regrowth of the bark.
The owner was further supplementing his income by contract rearing Iberian pigs for high value artisan port production. But as a result of prolonged drought in the area he has to carefully regulate his cattle and pig numbers to protect an increasingly sparse grazing ground – further emphasising the importance of exploiting the alternative income streams and eco system services the Montado offers.
The farm in Sesmarias has been part of the 2BForest woodland certification group since 2018 with the aim of achieving sustainable forest management and higher incomes. With good management through forest certification the Montado supports several ecosystem services characterised by high levels of biodiversity, soil and water conservation and carbon storage.
With cork at the heart of the Montado supporting farming resilience and contributing to Portugal’s economic and environmental sustainability, let’s raise a glass to one of nature’s most versatile materials.