EPVL students build a hotel for insects in the Pedrulha Business Forest

The construction of a hotel for insects in Bosque Empresarial da Pedrulha, parish of Casal Comba, marked World Tree and Forest Day, on March 21st, as part of the “Planting oxygen – less cement, more biodiversity” project of the Municipality of Mealhada.

The new hotel for insects created in the Bosque Empresarial da Pedrulha, with an area of ​​two thousand square meters, complemented its plantation, on Autochthonous Forest Day, on November 23rd, with the participation of students, businesspeople and workers from industrial areas . “Several indigenous species were planted, from stone pines to cork oaks, from cherry trees to laurel trees, from leafy trees to hawthorn trees, with the aim of creating leisure areas in industrial areas”, reads a statement from Câmara da Mealhada, which adds that This year, in the construction of this ‘hotel’, “various materials from nature were used and the roof has centuries-old tiles from the ancient ceramics of Devesas, in Pampilhosa, representing a tribute to an industrial hub that had a strong importance in the municipality of Mealhada” .

“Basically, we are here today maintaining the space planted last November, opening boilers, watering and building a hotel for insects that will contribute to biodiversity in the space”, Lídia Dias, from the Interpretation Center, told our newspaper. Environmental of Mealhada, explaining that “the best time to carry out plantations is from November to February, from here onwards maintenance of plantations must be carried out”.

The initiative included the participation of students in the 10th year of the Systems Informatics course at Escola Profissional Vasconcellos Lebre. Capturing the best moments was Guilherme Marques, 16 years old, who told us that the work carried out that afternoon “will increase biodiversity in this roundabout”. “We built boilers to make irrigation easier and the water to accumulate more. Other colleagues built a hotel for pollinating insects”, added the student, noting that the initiative took into account good environmental practices, “taking into account the walk we took from school to here”. Words corroborated by Francisco Caninhos, of the same age, who emphasized the fact that they were there “contributing to the environment that is getting worse and worse because of climate change”.

Monica Sofia Lopes