Know the eucalyptus forest

Eucalyptus is particularly important in the forestry, social and economic sectors. Know more about The Navigator Company’s eucalyptus, how it fits in the forest mosaic, and how production and nature preservation measures can go hand in hand.

Multifaceted and with huge potential, eucalyptus has been used in Portugal since the 19th century and plays a prominent role in the forest economy. Its productive function meets the growing demand as a result of population increase and demand for goods and services and non-renewable raw materials, namely of fossil origin.

These trees also assist the preservation of natural forests and other forest species, in line with nature preservation measures. Good forest management helps eucalyptus and other forests  coexist in the natural landscape. Its responsible management helps preserve natural resources and biodiversity.

Eucalyptus in the forest mosaic

The importance of eucalyptus forests does not end here: It is rather part of a living mosaic that, despite its main production focus, has the mission of preserving the conservation values of the resources present there and its biodiversity. Ensuring good forest management means ensuring the existence of other species of flora or fauna, areas for shelter, food, reproduction and passage of many species of migratory birds.

Eucalyptus forests go through many stages, starting with land preparation to accommodate  a new plantation. Young eucalyptus forests have between one and four years of growth. After the developed eucalyptus forests, with trees aged between four and eight years, follow the adult eucalyptus forests, with trees aged between eight and twelve years. At the end of this period, trees are ready for cutting, thus ensuring the sourcing of raw material, a process which is different from deforestation.

The Navigator Company’s eucalyptus forests are part of a diverse landscape mosaic in which there are other types of forests – some for wood production, such as poplar forests and pine forests, but also cork production, such as cork oaks and cork oak forests. Other areas focus on fruit production, e.g. stone pine forests and small traditional olive groves, along with areas for arbutus harvesting and cattle pasture.

These diversified properties, where eucalyptus forests are predominant include conservation areas aimed at promoting the good conservation status of habitats and species that occur there, ensuring their maintenance and the improvement of ecosystem functions and services.

The location of production forests and the protection of their watercourses allows for a vast array of tree and shrub species and animals, creating habitats with different characteristics that ensure the existence of rich biodiversity and help reconcile landscape and recreational values. Preserving and restoring the natural values in these areas is highly relevant and its proper management ensures s the coexistence of areas focused on culture and leisure, further ensuring the quality of the water and fish abundance, while contributing also to the carbon sequestration and retention process.

This landscape, which should be ideally varied, also includes discontinuity and access areas, deemed essential to protect the forest, given its capacity to slow the spread of fire. Paths and access ways help firefighting teams act quickly. Silvopasture areas assist in vegetation control, thus reducing the amount of fuel material above ground and promoting soil fertility. Farmland areas in turn promote landscape discontinuity.

What comes from the eucalyptus forest

Wood from the predominant Eucalyptus globulus, out of the several eucalyptus species and hybrids in Portugal, holds particular characteristics that benefit the production of pulp and paper. At a global level, this species is considered the ideal for such applications. However, eucalyptus forests provide other positive contributions in many ways:

Cellulose
 In addition to paper production, from cellulose we can produce lyocell, used in textile production and sponge  manufacturing. Other elements, such as nitrocellulose and nano-cellulose, are there, for example, in varnishes, enamels and electronic components.

Wood
It is used in civil construction, furniture production and charcoal, among others.

Non-woody forest products
Among these products, honey and essential oils stand out, used in natural medicine and cosmetics production, for example.

Environmental services
 Can reduce the use of materials in indigenous forests. Its careful management promotes oxygen production, carbon sequestration and soil protection. It is estimated that each eucalyptus retains 4 to 9 tons of carbon per hectare annually, resulting in 11 to 24 tons of oxygen.

Land renovation work

In degraded soils, eucalyptus is often used as a pioneering species to recovery these soils.

Biofuels and bioenergy

Can contribute to the production of ethanol, thermal energy and electricity.

Brief history of eucalyptus forests in Portugal

This forest species is of utmost importance in Portugal and takes up 26% of the forest area according to the 6th National Forest Inventory (IFN6, 2019). Eucalyptus operates on several fronts, from assorted commercial products to soil recovery or carbon sequestration. The history of eucalyptus in Portugal began to be written almost two centuries ago: the first eucalyptus on record dates back to 1829 and was planted at Quinta da Formiga, Vila Nova de Gaia. This forest species was established from the north to the south of the country, with emphasis on the capital and plantations in the National Forests of Choupal (1868/1869), Vale de Canas (1875), Virtudes (1906), Escaroupim and Urso (1910).

The large investment in the dissemination of eucalyptus was mainly related to its potential, and in 1869 the first plantations occurred, in order to use these resources for commercial production – which meant the acquisition, in Porto, of more than two thousand eucalyptus trees for this purpose. This initiative by the Portuguese Royal Railways Company was there to manufacture railway sleepers.

Decade after decade, eucalyptus secured its position in forest production and industry, At the beginning of the 1900s, Caima Pulp Company conducted the first tests for the production of pulp (with pinewood). The ambitious attempts bore fruit and, in 1921, this company’s factory, located in Albergaria-a-Velha, became the first – in the world – to produce pulp commercially in order to make paper and using only eucalyptus wood. In 1957, Companhia Portuguesa de Celulose in Cacia (currently owned by The Navigator Company) also left its mark in history, applying the kraft process, in which the chemical division of wood fibres is made with the sulfate process. The final product was the innovative bleached eucalyptus pulp.

The importance of eucalyptus was increasingly notorious, but it did not neglect two major concerns: the differentiating quality of the product, its range of applications and the careful management of eucalyptus. Less than a decade later works for the selection of top quality  eucalyptus trees began (Celbi’s Forest Department, at Quinta do Furadouro) and, in 1983, Portucel’s Technological and Forestry Research Center was created in Aveiro. The final hallmark was the establishment in 1996 of RAIZ – Forest and Paper Research Institute.

Some facts about the eucalyptus forests

• Eucalyptus is not the predominant tree in Portuguese forests: Data from the 6th National Forest Inventory state that cork oak and holm oak (perennial hardwoods) are the most present forest formations (34% of the forest). Eucalyptus comes up in third place, after pine forests, with about 845,000 hectares (26%). 72% of the national forest is made up of native species, of which only 2% is natural forest.
• Eucalyptus can protect soils from erosion (depending on the forestry model), reducing this risk through water run-off, especially in slope areas. It promotes better water infiltration and, in turn, generates large shadows that help lower thermal amplitudes in bare soil.
• 70% of the eucalyptus nutrients are found in its bark, leaves and branches. As such, when they fall into the soil and begin to crumble, introducing themselves into the land, they increase the organic matter and help the nutrient cycle, improving the quality of the soils, thus helping correcting soils. This management can be further enhanced by adequate fertilisation.
• Eucalyptus coexists well with other forest species. It is an exotic species that is not considered invasive, as evidenced by Decree-Law No. 92/2019, which excludes this species from the National List of Invasive Species – not least because it has a lower regenerative capacity than other trees, such as pine, and its seeds do not spread easily.

 Eucalyptus is one of Portugal’s most important forest species and is a key factor in the country’s development, with solidified potential and generating wealth and employment – it directly and indirectly creates more than 80,000 jobs. It is therefore also essential to better understand eucalyptus forests so as to better explain their importance and impact on the territory and improve their management. A diverse landscape, consisting of such mosaics, ensures that the natural values of forests coexist in harmony with well-managed eucalyptus forests, protecting their resources and preserving the environment – far beyond production.