Fields and Rural Areas

Portugal has extensive open areas, especially south of the Tagus River and inland, where the landscape stretches across gentle plains and plateaus. Cork oak and holm oak woodlands, with their widely spaced trees and pastureland, dominate the Alentejo and parts of Beira Interior and Trás-os-Montes. These are interspersed with cereal fields, olive groves, vineyards, orchards, pastures, cereal steppes, and abandoned farmland, where low scrub and tall grasses are gradually reclaiming the soil. Interspersed throughout are villages, farms, vegetable gardens, backyards, corrals, and rural paths, forming a mosaic where the human presence is an integral part of the landscape.

These open, rural spaces support a very characteristic fauna, adapted to long-distance viewing, running, high-flying, or hiding in the undergrowth. Many species depend on the balance between traditional agriculture, grazing, and the resting of the fields, and open-field birds, in particular, are among the most threatened in the country. Because the montado (cork oak woodland) has its own structure, it is common to find forest species that take advantage of the trees, alongside open-field species that prefer the bare ground. In villages and farms, many animals use barns, stone walls, roofs, and wells as shelter, living closely with those who live there.

This chapter covers plains, open plateaus, agricultural fields and abandoned (open) land, cork oak and holm oak woodlands, and rural areas, including villages, farms, orchards, and backyards. The densest forests are covered in the forest chapter, the streams, ponds, weirs, and lagoons that cross these fields in the wetlands, and the agricultural or open areas along the sea and dunes in the coastal zone. Towns and cities, with their more built-up environment, are covered in the urban areas.