Press Releases

Lisbon, 20 November 2008 – Vodafone Portugal and the Portuguese Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Biodiversity (ICNB) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding on combating biodiversity loss. The ceremony took place in Vodafone Portugal’s Auditorium at Parque das Nações in the presence of the Chairmen of Vodafone Portugal and ICNB, and the Chairman of Quercus.

In the wake of the Business & Biodiversity initiative of Portugal’s Presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2007, Vodafone Portugal and ICNB established a partnership to combat biodiversity loss via projects designed to help build a sustainable future.

Also under the aegis of the Business & Biodiversity programme, Vodafone and Quercus signed a cooperation agreement on the preservation of biodiversity and the re-establishment of economically sustainable agricultural and grazing activities in an area of the Serra de Aire e Candeeiros Natural Park. One of the main objectives was to protect habitat of the Alpine chough, a bird in danger of extinction in Portugal.

Local partnership agreements will also be signed to ensure the project’s continuation after 2012, in particular with the ‘Terra Ch㒠co-operative, which will certify local products such as kid and cheese, and promote Nature Tourism products that build on the relationship between the traditional economy, nature conservation and biodiversity.