LPN bought 1,800 hectares of Castro Verde to save its birds

Founded in 1948, LPN is the oldest environmental NGO in the Iberian Peninsula.

Castro Verde is where that work is concentrated. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, using European Commission funding, LPN bought six properties covering 1,800 hectares, to keep them out of the hands of companies buying land in the Alentejo to plant for cellulose. They now form the core of the Castro Verde Biosphere Reserve, a refuge for steppe birds.

The landscape, dominated by cereal fields, supports species including great bustards, little bustards and Montagu’s harriers. The cereals provide nesting and foraging habitat.

Estrela Matilde, LPN’s executive director, explains: “We still have the biggest populations in the country in Castro Verde, and we are trying to protect these species. These species are 100% dependent on agriculture. If agriculture disappears, these species will disappear as well.”

LPN runs a dedicated programme for the Montagu’s harrier, a threatened bird of prey that nests on the ground in cereal fields.

Nests are destroyed when machinery harvests the cereal. LPN’s field teams monitor the population, identify nests and work with farmers. When a nest is found, the farmer leaves about one hectare around it uncut, and is compensated through EU agri-environment payments.

This season LPN identified around 60 nests and protected more than 30. When nests cannot stay in the fields, eggs are incubated in Olhão before the chicks return to Castro Verde.

Despite these efforts, the broader trend for Portugal’s steppe birds remains deeply concerning. The most recent national census of the little bustard (sisão), published in June 2026, estimated a decline of around 90% since 2006, even inside areas protected for the species.

LPN also works on black vultures, and coordinates a project with grid operator E-REDES to cut bird deaths on power lines. Burying the most critical lines is one option the two are exploring.

LPN seeks new income amid EU conservation funding uncertainty

LPN’s projects have relied on the European Commission’s LIFE programme for more than thirty years, the only European financial instrument dedicated exclusively to the environment and climate action. It covers 65–75% of project costs; LPN finds the rest itself, every time. Now the model threatens to change.

Estrela explains: “European funding always follows European priorities, and right now neither the environment nor conservation are among them.” She notes that environmental NGOs depend heavily on these funds to operate. “Unfortunately, our sector lives off this funding, and this instability puts at risk both our work and the impact we can have.”

As executive director, Estrela is responsible for LPN’s strategy and management, overseeing fundraising, partnerships, human resources and governance. A key focus is LPN’s financial sustainability: reducing its dependence on project-based funding so it can operate with greater long-term stability.

“We need to manage an organisation as a business as well,” Estrela says. “We need to generate a surplus, as we are a non-profit, to invest in conservation.”

The strategy is to diversify income, through private funding, corporate partnerships, paid educational services, and tourism around birdwatching and wellness.

One initiative, still just a dream for now, is at Monte do Paraíso, one of LPN’s Castro Verde estates, where 200 to 300 hectares have burned. “We don’t want to do tourism ourselves,” Estrela says. “That’s not our expertise.” Tourism, she argues, should and can be a tool to pay for conservation.

LPN is starting a new project, funded by La Caixa, to develop a network of observatories for birdwatching and photography, on its own land and on farmers’ land. The project is approved and funded, and starts in September. This is a new model of territorial development, built through an increasingly close partnership with local communities: the project itself is the development model, and the observatories are the tool. By creating year-round attractions they generate income for local businesses, and the observatories feed scientific knowledge through citizen science. The benefit, as Estrela puts it, “goes directly to the farmers” who keep the habitat and protect the species.

But tourism has to be managed carefully: visitors can disturb nesting birds and undo the work. LPN wants to train and certify guides, and agree best practices.

“We need to be able to continue our work,” Estrela says. “Our mission is to protect our ecosystems and the species, and to make sure we have the resources to do it.”

About Estrela Matilde

Estrela Matilde is the Executive Director of LPN – Liga para a Protecção da Natureza, Portugal’s oldest nature conservation NGO, and the first person to hold the post. A biologist with a Master’s in Conservation Biology from the Universidade de Évora, she has over 15 years’ experience managing environmental NGOs, including 11 years at Fundação Príncipe (Príncipe Island). She has led LPN’s national work since 2025, after first working alongside the organisation on joint projects.

How you can support LPN

New members and donations are both welcome: membership is €25 a year, donations are tax-deductible in Portugal.

Read the full profile on Sustainable Living:

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