Pollinator Week

“Discovering Pollinators” is one of A Rocha’s most recent projects with the goal of raising awareness among the educational community and the community in general about the importance of pollinators in biodiversity and the balance of ecosystems. Threats to pollinators are well documented and are one of the main problems of natural systems and agricultural systems. Most of them are the result of habitat loss and fragmentation, intensive agriculture (particularly through the use of fertilizers and pesticides), and climate change. A Rocha intends to include

Pollinator Week2022-04-07T11:02:55+01:00

A volunteer from Slovenia

Last week we had our latest long term volunteer, Daša, sharing with us her life story. It's too good to keep just for ourselves so we decided to share her with you. Enjoy her! Hi! My name is Daša and I come from Slovenia. I've always loved animals, which is one of the reasons I chose to do my bachelor's in biology and later continue my master's in Ecology and Biology with Natural Science. At the moment, I'm finishing my master thesis on the European

A volunteer from Slovenia2022-03-22T15:27:21+00:00

Natural Reserve of Lagoa dos Salgados

The public consultation on the proposal for the future Natural Reserve of Lagoa dos Salgados, available through the portal https://participa.pt/pt/consulta/proposta-de-classificacao-da-reserva-natural-da-lagoa-dos-salgados has already started. It will run until the 20th of January 2022. Due to the importance of this lagoon in the panorama of nature conservation in the Algarve, we call for a massive participation in the public consultation from the civil society. A ROCHA and many other nature conservation organizations are working to ensure that more detailed information and minutes will be available

Natural Reserve of Lagoa dos Salgados2021-12-10T15:33:19+00:00

Birds need longer time to recover!…

Bernice Goffin was a Master's student who came from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. For six weeks she was at our Center and collected data from our wild bird ringing database, namely the Pied flycatcher. In addition to this data, she also collected our daily weather data available since the beginning of the 21st century. Unfortunately, her work indicated something we already suspected. Here's what she wrote: Many bird species that migrate long distances are in decline partly because of environmental changes, such as

Birds need longer time to recover!…2021-03-16T21:42:42+00:00

Plastic Free February

A Rocha Portugal, in partnership with A Rocha Netherlands, A Rocha Uganda and A Rocha South Africa, will promote the "Plastic Free February" project that aims to reduce plastic, especially single-use-plastic, in our daily lives, in churches, workplaces and in our homes. The goal is not only to reduce the amount of plastic we use, but also to share both the difficulties and the solutions found to solve them, whilst reducing. These may be sent to us as written articles, or short videos, that we will share on

Plastic Free February2021-01-25T19:18:17+00:00

Microplastic Studies

by Katya Egorova   Microplastics are one of the most uncontrolled pollutants in our oceans. Microplastics can range from 1-5mm, making them hard to remove. It is no longer possible to clear the oceans of them completely, but it is still possible to contain the continuous spread.     Our research is conducted by collecting sand samples from the beaches in Lagos, Alvor, Portimão and Ferragudo. To see a more detailed picture, sand samples are taken at several sites of each of these beaches throughout

Microplastic Studies2020-10-21T16:31:23+01:00

Meet Our Volunteers!

My name is Katya and I am from Russia. I was born in Siberia in Yakutsk. Last year I decided to move to Saint Petersburg, Russia to discover a new place and spend several months there. I’m a financer and worked in the investment and finance area for 2 years, but I wanted to try myself as a volunteer and be a part of an environmental project. I found an interesting A Rocha project about microplastics, which not only contained the study of the topical

Meet Our Volunteers!2020-10-20T12:35:22+01:00

Thanks to our donors

THANK YOU We want to thank all our donors for supporting us at all times, and especially at this critical stage. To all our huge THANK YOU!

Thanks to our donors2020-07-24T16:18:45+01:00

34 years of receiving volunteers

For the last 34 years A Rocha has been receiving volunteers from all continents, from many different cultures, backgrounds and ages. Many have returned and tell us how important their experience was, and how they missed the people and A Rocha life. For us, many hold a special place in our memories for the way they contributed their gifts, skills and knowledge. For non-profit organisations like ours, it would be difficult to function properly without the help and dedication of volunteers. Our work and

34 years of receiving volunteers2019-12-10T19:57:33+00:00

Environmental education in 2018/2019

The academic year 2018-19 began with the participation of A Rocha in the Week of Education and Initiatives of Volunteers in the Algarve - SEIVA, organised by the Portuguese Environment Agency, where we offered two activities in English. In October, we were once again honored for our participation in Environmental Water Volunteers with the merit award and the designation of Project Ambassadors. We started a new project "My Beach" with the indispensable help of Amigos d'A Rocha. This project is the responsibility of the

Environmental education in 2018/20192019-05-21T18:36:42+01:00