There's a network of ridgelines above the Vale da Gema that most of our neighbors have never walked. From up there, you can see where the water comes from — and where it's been going wrong.

We are the Cooperativa Integral da Terra, a network of families, farmers, and land stewards spread across the western Algarve and southern Alentejo. For years we've been strengthening the local economy from below — sharing services, pooling resources, protecting forests. But recently we looked up and realized: the headwaters that feed all of this are drying out. And we know the people who can fix it.

That's why we formed the Vale da Gema Headwaters Consortium with Tamera and other partners. Tamera sits at the very top, proving every day that water retention landscapes work. Our job — the cooperative's job — is to get bodies moving through that landscape. To turn a watershed into a classroom. To make regeneration visible, social, and impossible to ignore.

What we'll do, over 18 months:

Host the Watershed Marathon & Walkathon — a yearly community event along a newly built tour track through the headwaters, where runners and walkers pass swales, retention ponds, and re-vegetated slopes, seeing with their own eyes how water comes back to dry land. Regional food, music, and connection turn it into a celebration, not a lecture.
- Prize money is not for the fastest — it's for everyone who finishes. Winners are drawn randomly from all finishers!
  Exact amounts depend on how much we raise, but as a guide: the top draw should get €5000, several more between €100 and €1000 each.
Launch a public billboard campaign — bold, visible markers along the tour track explaining each intervention in plain language. Simple message: this exists. It works. Come be part of it.
Run a matching fund for regenerative interventions — surplus funding goes directly back into the land. We match 20-80% that each landowner invests into rewilding, invasive species control, native reforestation, water retention, or close-to-nature forestry on their property. This turns the campaign into a regenerative multiplier: money raised flows through the event and directly into the soil.

In two years, the marathon route won't just be a race course — it will be a living corridor of restored land that thousands of people have walked, learned from, and invested in. Neighbors who never spoke will have run together. Landowners who hesitated will have broken ground, backed by matching funds. And the cooperative will have proven that regeneration isn't just an ecological practice — it's a social one.

This is how we move through a watershed together: on foot, with open eyes, and with shovels ready.

Funding Goals (all values in €)

First €5,000 — Route and billboard prep, plus prize money
Next €20,000 — Regenerative interventions and more billboards
Next €5,000 — Prize money boost
All above €30,000 — Regenerative interventions

Budget

Watershed Marathon & Walkathon

Route planning and clearing — €1,000
Event logistics, water, snacks — €1,500

Billboard Campaign (5 billboards)

Design — €1,500
Print and installation — €1,000

Regenerative Interventions (matching fund)

Invasive species control (acacia, eucalyptus) — ~€2,000/ha
Native reforestation (trees + guards + planting) — ~€4/tree
Water retention earthworks (swales, check dams) — ~€500/100m
Habitat restoration and rewilding — ~€3,000/ha
Close-to-nature forestry (cork oak management) — ~€1,500/ha

### More Reading

- [Cooperativa Integral da Terra](https://cooperativadaterra.pt/en/home/)

- [Pro Nativa](https://cooperativadaterra.pt/en/pronativa-en/)

- [Casa dos Sonhos](https://casadossonhos.org/)