Lisbon Environment

Lisbon has a large number of green spaces, including a 600 hectare forest called Monsanto, which has regularly been threatened with public buildings, but which has until now been saved from urban development. When seen from the air Lisbon looks like a nature lover’s paradise, with acres of forest stretching across green valleys towards the Tagus Estuary. Thanks to the city’s humid climate almost anything will grow here. This is evident in the main botanical gardens, which grow tropical exotics such as giant fig trees, primitive tree ferns and palms where flocks of feral parrots roost.

Lisbon has a long tradition of valuing its trees, such as the magnificent Principe Real Cupressus Lusitanica, whose seed was brought from Mexico by Jesuit priests nearly 200 years ago. Lisbon also has some of Europe’s most interesting bird species, many of which may be found on the salt marshes of the Tagus Estuary Nature Reserve. If you are lucky you can witness flocks of thousands of flamingos rising off the water close to the Vasco de Gama Bridge and almost half of Europe’s avocet population come to Lisbon each winter.

The agricultural areas around the capital are rich in wildlife, including otters, ospreys, harriers, purple herons, black-winged stilts, bitterns, wild cats, polecats and badgers. A drive for less bureaucracy and greater spending on new stadiums, motorways, large dams and shopping centres is, however, threatening some of the environmental protection areas that make Lisbon such a green city. While few would argue against the cutting of red tape, the cost of this to wildlife and the natural landscape must of course be carefully weighed.