“Conscience for a living planet”

“Conscience for a living planet”

 WHY ARE CORK OAK LANDSCAPES IMPORTANT?

Cork oak landscapes have proven biodiversity, environmental and ecological values.

These landscapes are one of the best examples in the Mediterranean for balancing conservation and development for the benefit of people and nature. They sustain rich biodiversity and traditional livelihoods, provide opportunities for development in economically and socially disadvantaged areas, and play a key role in ecological processes, such as water retention, soil conservation or carbon storage. (Montero and Torres, 1993).

 Biodiversity values
The Mediterranean is one of the 25 global ‘hot spots’, characterized by a high level of species diversity.

In cork oak landscapes, plant diversity can reach a level of 135 species per square meter, and many of these species have aromatic, culinary or medicinal uses. Animal diversity is also high. Cork oak landscapes are important for the most charismatic and threatened species in the Mediterranean and a large number of migratory and wintering birds from Northern Europe, including virtually the entire European population of common cranes. They also contain a rich diversity of fauna, including endemic spiders, spade foot toads, geckos, skinks, vipers, mongoose, wild cats, roe deer, boars, Barbary deer and genets.

Cork oak landscapes are particularly well adapted to the harsh Mediterranean climate and soil conditions, supporting high biodiversity levels and sustainable economic activities (WWF MedPO and ERENA.) This makes their maintenance and protection crucial, and means that biodiversity conservation cannot be separated from economic and social development (Birot, 2005).

Key examples of threatened species found in the Mediterranean cork oak landscapes:

Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus)

Fewer than 100 (not counting cubs of the year)
The Iberian lynx has recently gone from the critically endangered species;^[1] to the endangered species;^[1] thanks to reintroductions and other conservation actions.

Iberian ImperialEagle (Aquila adalberti)

150 breeding pairs

The species is classified as Vulnerable by IUCN.^[1] Threats include loss of habitat, human encroachment, collisions with pylons, and illegal poisoning. There has also been a decline in the rabbit populations, as a result of myxomatosis and other viral illnesses.

Barbary Deer (Cervuselaphus barbarus)
Found only in North West Tunisia and North East Algeria.  No available estimate of number of individuals.

Black Vulture (also known as Cinereous Vulture) (Aegypius monachus )

1,050-1,150 breeding pairs in Spain (based on Tucker & Heath (1994); 800 breeding pairs in Spain (based on Castro & al, 1997)

This colony have now spread its breeding grounds to Portugal. 

Near Threatened (IUCN 3.1)[1]; They no longer nest in Israel. More recently, protection and deliberate feeding schemes have allowed some local recoveries in numbers, particularly in Spain.

  

Black Stork (Ciconia nigra)
A total estimate for Spain of 350-400 breeding pairs

This is a shy and wary species, unlike the closely related white stork. It is seen in pairs or small flocks—in marshy areas, rivers or inland waters. The black stork feeds on amphibians and insects. 

Environmental services
Forests and woodlands play a vital role in protecting the environment. This is particularly true of steeply sloping watersheds where tree roots bind the soil and protect it from erosion and landslides. Uncontrolled forest clearance in upland areas can have major repercussions further downstream.

 

Water protection
Eroded soil may be carried by streams and rivers and deposited in reservoirs linked to irrigation and hydro-electricity projects, thus reducing the capacity and shortening the life of these costly investments. Carbon sequestration and energy conservation
Cork oak landscapes also contribute to store carbon, reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Cork
A natural resource, renewable, biodegradable and recyclable
• Natural cork is an environmentally-friendly material that completely biodegrades or can be readily recycled without creating any significant secondary waste.
• After use as a stopper, the cork bio-degrades without producing toxic residues or may be recycled into other products.

 THREATS TO THE CORK OAK LANDSCAPES
Cork oak landscapes now face a number of inter-related threats that put their sustainability at risk, including increasing human pressure on natural resources such as forest clearance for agricultural and other land uses, forest abandonment (particularly in the Northern Mediterranean), poor forest management practices, forest fires, changing climatic conditions, and associated diseases, as well as overgrazing. Many of these threats are caused by economic factors, often driven by policies and markets. One major threat comes from the increasing risk of decline in the global cork market, due to the growing use of cork stopper substitutes, which threatens to reduce the market value of cork, and thus the incentive to preserve and manage cork oak forests.

The likely consequences of a decline in the cork stoppers market on the cork oak landscapes.

This report shows that changes in the cork stoppers market pose a major threat to the cork oak forests conservation.

Projections used in this report suggest that unless current market trends are reversed, we may see accelerated loss and degradation to cork oak landscapes, which will be extremely hard to reverse.

This is because the survival of these cork oak landscapes is strongly linked to the maintenance of the market value of cork, which is currently dependent upon the wine stopper market.

Cork oak landscapes can be either positively or negatively impacted by the decisions made now by the wine producer, bottler or seller.

The increase in the market share of alternative wine stoppers, specifically plastic stoppers and screw tops, could cause a loss of the economic value of cork oak landscapes, thereby contributing heavily to the degradation of one of the best remaining examples of a system which balances the needs of biodiversity conservation and people.

 

THE OVERALL VISION OF WWF: ‘in 30-50 years’ time cork oak forest landscapes are maintained and restored, supporting economically viable and culturally and socially beneficial multi-purpose management systems. This leads to sustainable livelihoods, increased perceptions of the whole range of values, goods and services of cork oak landscapes and improved biodiversity’.

“Preserve your world, Preserve Yourself”

Source http://www.wwf.org.uk/filelibrary/pdf/corkscrewed.pdf

Interesting Facts about Cork

"Cork in Hollywood"

Cork is used in special effects in cinema and the Circus:

Cork grain is used to simulate realistic terrain (sand, dirt) on movies and theatre sets.

Thanks to its lightness, cork granules are used in special effects scenes to simulate explosions in movies and to create special flooring in the circus...

This technique was used in films such as:

Total Recall, with actor Colin Farrell, 

Gangster Squad with Sean Penn,

Mission Impossible with Tom Cruise,

Meanwhile, the expanded cork granulates was used in

Ghostbusters to simulate debris of buildings, and in the movies Volcano and Dante`s Peak recreating volcanic rocks.

As a general rule, when in film are shown somewhat bullet 

hitting the particles after impact are projected made ​​of cork.

For the blackened third degree burns seen in films like 

The Giant Behemoth (1959), X the Unknown 

and

The Brian from Planet Arous (1958), 

makeup artists often use Pan-Cake or burnt Cork. Pan-cake foundation (which is packed in a circular cake-like form, hence the term cake), comes in a variety of colours, including black. Pan-cake makeup can be wasted off rather easily with soap and water. It dries flat and does not require a heavy application of power. When the black coloured variety is stippled directly onto a person it resembles scorched skin. For added thickness burnt cork mixed with mortician`s wax gives a more drastically charred appearance.

Blackface minstrel in theatre, Blackface was an important performance tradition in the American theatre for roughly 100 years, beginning around 1830.

It quickly became popular elsewhere, particularly so in Britain, where the tradition lasted longer than in the US, occurring on prime-time TV as late as 1978 (The Black and White Minstrel Show) and 1981. In both the United States and Britain, Blackface was most commonly used in the minstrel performance tradition, which it both predated and outlasted. White blackface performers in the past used burnt Cork and later greasepaint or shoe polish to blacken their skin and exaggerate their lips, often wearing woolly wigs, gloves, tailcoats, or ragged clothes to complete the transformation. Later, black artists also performed in black-face.

In the Cirque du Solei they use to:

Sand Cliff deck:

The pride and joy of the KÀ Carpentry Department is the Cork cleaning system. It is used to process the 4,000 pounds of Portuguese cork used each day to create the "sand" on the beach during the Wash Up scene. Carpentry has technicians whose sole job is to care for the cork each day, which includes filtering, sifting it for debris, removing static electricity and keeping it moisturized.

Scenic Elements:

For the Wash-up on the Shore scene, the beach is created using 350 cubic feet of granular cork from Portugal.

Leave your comment and do not forget to visit our on-line store to enjoy wonderful gifts in cork. 

The benefits of Cork and History

Cork has a very special place on the planet.

He can get everything you can imagine, without damaging the environment, the animal environment or climate. Consists of the good will of man: the protection of our habitat.

The question is: Why Cork?

"Cork is used for thousands of years. Do not exist many materials that have such along history, or who have endured so well to competition of new materials invented by man. "

It is of utmost importance within the Portuguese economy, whether in forest expansion as in industrial processing. Portugal is the largest producer of cork and cork product are one of the most valuable domestic exports. This material, in addition to a wide range of uses, has an environmental connotation, being not only a raw material but also by the surrounding eco system, cork and any associated fauna and flora.

Portugal transforms around 70% of the world Bark with more than60% of which is for the production of natural cork stoppers.

Contrary to what may seem, cork is part of human culture as technical material since forever, or as a sealant, insulating or buoyant. Even today there is no better material, natural or synthetic, to replace him.

And Compared to other plants?

Although all plants producing cell type of cork is in cork oak the “Quercus Suber

L.”, that produces a protective layer that achieves a considerable thickness, and has the capacity to regenerate, possessing characteristics that make them interesting for various applications and commercial exploitation. Microscopically Cork is a lightweight, elastic, impermeable to liquids and gases, thermal, electrical, acoustic and vibration absorbers, harmless, allowing it to be compressed without lateral expansion.

 The industry of cork in Portugal

The cork industry in Portugal, is quite different:

-Small to medium size (family structure, and labour- intensive) sometimes without financial and organizational capacity to adapt to developments within the sector.

-Transformation industries, with a more established commercial component.

-The Modern industry, which consists of small groups of plants, most dynamic and another part of a more traditional nature, and composed of units of small size and character artisan.

There are large differences in equipment, human resources and financial, production control, procurement of raw materials and marketing.

This situation has improved due to the implementation of the ICRP(International Code of Cork Stopper Manufacturing Practice), also with increasing demands from their customers because the production is essentially facing the export markets of high technology, where competition from other products for the same purpose is high.

Did you know?

The cork oak is a tree that dates from the Tertiary Age, the Oligocene, which is considered have arisen in the area of the Tyrrhenian Sea and has progressively and later migrated to the current locations (Olive,1991).

The natural habitat of this species is in the European Mediterranean area and North Africa. In Portugal cork oaks are scattered throughout the country, in pure stands and mixed but predominantly south of the Tagus (especially in the Alentejo).

Usually the cork oak is a species very tolerant of soils, except calcareous or too clayey, where the root system expands easily.

Requires conditions that provide free expansion root, a high degree of aeration and good internal drainage and regular.

The cork oak tree and a slow-growing and long-lived, which can reach 250 350years, although it is considered that the age limit for the production of cork is 150 to 200 years. The adult cork naturally has a size of about 10 to 15 meters, characterized by a short thick trunk which bifurcates the small height from the ground in major strides angle covered by profuse ram aria. The shape of the cork oak influences the production and profitability of cork extraction. Are considered “bad production units “trees with stems low, tortuous, irregular, with poorly shaped canopies.

Recycled Christmas

I found some Christmas decorations very interesting on the internet and I want to share with you my discovery.

Why not join the cork stoppers and make small applications for Christmas?

This year I want to be different and to honour my planet, so I offer cork products.

We are interested in your opinion about the innovation of the cork sector.

Visit our product pages and check out some of the great accessories, gifts, bags and technology that are made of cork fabric.

We are interested in your opinion about the innovation of the cork sector.