Mata da Margaraça

The Mata da Margaraça (officially the Mata Nacional da Margaraça) is a forest of about on the north-northwest slope of the Serra do Açor, in the municipality of Arganil in central Portugal. It sits between about 600 and 850 metres above sea level, near the village of Pardieiros in the parish of Benfeita.

The government decree that set up the Serra do Açor Protected Landscape describes the forest as one of the rare relics of natural vegetation on the schist slopes of central Portugal. It belongs to the Council of Europe's European Network of Biogenetic Reserves and is part of a Natura 2000 Site of Community Importance.

Protection

The forest had legal protection from 1979. On 3 March 1982, Decree-Law 67/82 created the Serra do Açor Protected Landscape. Inside it the decree set up two special zones: the Partial Nature Reserve of the Mata da Margaraça and the Recreation Reserve of the Fraga da Pena, a nearby waterfall. A 2019 government resolution states that the main purpose of the protected landscape is to preserve the Mata Nacional da Margaraça. The forest has been owned by the national nature conservation institute since 1985.

The protected landscape covers about 382 hectares, although more recent official documents give 373 hectares. A co-management plan for the protected landscape was later presented, with keeping the forest intact as its main goal.

Ecology

Vegetation

The forest is dominated by sweet chestnut and pedunculate oak. Its understorey includes plants typical of laurisilva (laurel forest), such as Portugal laurel, bay laurel, holly, and laurustinus. Field elm, hazel, wild cherry, and strawberry tree also grow there. Cork oak is less common and grows mostly around the edges.

Scientists describe the forest as a small surviving pocket of laurel forest. Laurel forest was widespread in Portugal during the Tertiary, before the last glacial period, when the climate was warmer and wetter. Relative humidity stays above 80 percent almost all year, and temperatures rarely go above 30 °C, even in the dry season. Researchers call this an "insular-like effect" inside a mountain range that otherwise has a mostly Mediterranean climate.

Fungi

Surveys of macrofungi in 2004 and 2018–2019 recorded about 271 species from 127 genera. The University of Évora study reported dozens of species never before recorded in Portugal: the press counted 74, while the paper's abstract gives 88. In the outer parts of the forest, where the October 2017 fire burned hardest, the study found fewer fungal species.

History and fires

Until the 1960s, much of the surrounding land was cleared for pasture, farming, and building, or replanted with maritime pine. The Mata da Margaraça was kept for wood, including coppiced chestnut.

Fires in 1987 and 2017 burned most of the forest. In October 2017, about 62 hectares burned. A year later the ICNF reported that around 70 percent of the burned area showed regrowth of oaks, chestnuts, and some shrubs, although the shrubs had suffered the most damage. The institute planned to plant 18,000 native plants, grown from seed collected in the forest, between November 2018 and February 2019.

Arganil's mayor, Luís Paulo Costa, said the fire behaved very differently in the native forest than in the rest of the area. In the Margaraça, it stayed low and burned less fiercely. In pine and eucalyptus plantations, it moved quickly through the treetops.

See also

• Serra do Açor
• Fraga da Pena
• Laurisilva
• Protected areas of Portugal
• Natura 2000