Cork oak woodland is the dominant landscape of the Alentejo, which is why we make it a central pillar of our services, from the materials we use to the natural resources we explore. This woodland was created by man and has a very particular ecosystem, comprising cork oak trees in a very delicate equilibrium and a subsystem only possible in the Mediterranean climate, especially the south of the Iberian Peninsula, and Algeria and Morocco. In Portugal, the country with the largest area of cork oaks in the world (33% of the worldwide area), cork oak woodlands have legal protection, whereby it is forbidden to cut them down and their cultivation is encouraged, making Portugal the world’s number one exporter of cork and manufacturer of cork stoppers. The cork oak woodlands are a forest ecosystem of extreme importance because of their manageable sustainability, allowing a profitable cork production operation to be conciliated with the conservation of the environmental functions of these woodlands.
In the months of June and July, and sometimes in August, we can also observe the stripping of the cork oaks, leaving the striking ochre-orange tree trunks bare, illuminating the wood.