World Environment Day

As part of the celebration of World Environment Day, CITAB brings together UTAD's long-standing vocation in this field. In fact, the Laboratory of Applied Ecology (LEA), founded in 2001, has stood out in long-term ecological monitoring, biodiversity conservation and ecological modelling, especially in assessing the implementation of the energy transition paradigm, particularly in terms of its infrastructural impacts (wind farms, hydroelectric projects) on biodiversity and in assessing the effectiveness of associated mitigation and compensation measures. In this context, CITAB, under the LEA leadership, was responsible for the general coordination of the Integrated Environmental Monitoring Program (PIMA) of the Baixo Sabor and Foz Tua Hydroelectric Power Dams, as well as for co-managing the Baixo Sabor LTER-Portugal Site (integrated in the European network of LTER - Long-Term Ecological Research sites).

After 20 years of LEA's existence, with more than 100 projects executed, involving more than 30 public and private entities in the environmental scope and around 7 million euros awarded to UTAD, its fusion with CITAB's LEF, gave rise in 2022 to the Laboratory of Fluvial and Terrestrial Ecology (LEFT), a reinforced team that takes on a portfolio of environmental projects that places CITAB and UTAD at the forefront of long-term ecological monitoring programs at a national level. In 2024, the LEAST (Laboratory of Ecology Applied to Sustainable Territories) research network was created, bringing together municipalities, entities from the agroforestry sector and local associations, focused on socio-ecological approaches toward sustainable multidisciplinary solutions in territories with low population density. Through this network, CITAB is involved in the coordination of the Working Group “Ecological Transition and Global Changes” within the scope of CRUSOE – Council of Rectors of Universities of Southwestern Europe and in the Scientific Committee of the Strategic Plan of the European Green Capital 2026, Guimarães.