The Porto biodiversity diagnosis confirmed the presence of 1,765 animal species in the municipality between 2021 and 2025, and pointed to the “reduced proportion of green spaces” as a fragility, announced yesterday by the city hall.
According to a note published on the Porto City Hall’s website, this diagnosis, prepared by Floradata within the scope of the Porto Municipal Biodiversity Strategy, confirmed the presence of 1,765 species between 2021 and 2025, which the municipality regards as demonstrating “a remarkable richness for a city with only 41 square kilometers and densely urbanized.”
The “three major biodiversity hubs” of the city are Parque da Cidade, the Serralves and Pasteleira area, and the Parque Oriental, with the city hall also highlighting areas of “high importance” such as the Unidade Operativa de Planeamento e Gestão (UOPG) de Currais, Quinta do Covelo, Parque da Asprela, and the UOPG de Aldoar.
In the municipality, 201 bird species were identified, and regarding invertebrates, the diagnosis notes “a percentage of 54% of pollinators (448 species)”.
The “reduced proportion of green spaces,” the “tree canopy cover of only 5%,” and significant territorial fragmentation are the main fragilities indicated.
The goals set in the Porto Municipal Biodiversity Strategy are, by 2030, to “increase public-access green areas by 30 hectares, raise the ecological value of 10 hectares of existing green spaces, re-permeabilize 15 hectares of soil, plant 15,000 trees, and expand the number of habitats and species by 10%.”
The municipality will now begin the phase of defining concrete actions to achieve the established targets.
The vice-president of the municipality, Catarina Araújo, cited in the city hall’s note, stated, during a debate on the results of the municipality’s biodiversity diagnosis, that in a densely urbanized city like Porto, the municipality has the responsibility to “restore degraded spaces, recover waterways, gardens and natural habitats, ensuring that all these elements function as an integrated system.”
