Keen Tours

13/08/2025

Indigenous Peoples protect 80% of global biodiversity & are key to . Yet they’re often excluded from decisions & funding affecting their own lands —while facing rising threats from environmental degradation.

More from United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA): https://social.desa.un.org/publications/state-of-the-worlds-indigenous-peoples-volume-vi-climate-crisis

14/07/2025

Today we have been re-certified by Biosphere Sustainable 💚

We feel we've been getting better at each step, at every decision, and this is the confirmation that Keen Tours is going in the right direction.

Learn more about what we do at https://shorturl.at/niAc6

When traveling to Northern Portugal, choose companies that are actively working for a better common future - check https://shorturl.at/24Trv

04/07/2025

The Peneda-Gerês National Park takes part of the Gerês-Xurés Transboundary Biosphere Reserve - one of 22 UNESCO 's Transboundary Biosphere Reserves.

Learn more about all the Biosphere Reserves across the globe (there are more than 730!)

🌍 Biosphere Reserves constitute living laboratories for sustainable development, where people and nature thrive together.

Learn how UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves protects biodiversity, supports local communities and sparks innovation for :

🔗 https://www.unesco.org/en/mab/wnbr/about

03/07/2025

Did you know we have a community library? 📚

The granary used to store the corn for our Bread Baking Tours is also used to store donated books that everyone is welcome to take!

Bring one, take another is the general rule, but we've been getting so many books from costumers and friends, that we're not too particular with it ☺️

Next time you come for a tour or a visit at Loja do Parque - sustainable products from the UNESCO's Gerês -Xurés Transboundary Biosphere Reserve -, you can bring an old book that is sitting in the shelf collecting dust, or even swap the book you finish during the holidays.

And follow our project at Espigueiro dos Livros

30/06/2025

Somos nós (Keen Tours/Loja do Parque) a empresa local parceira deste projeto inovador com a CEABN InBIO, do Instituto Superior de Agronomia!

O trabalho em rede e a partilha de saberes é essencial para desenvolvermos formas cada vez mais sustentáveis de viver e utilizarmos os recursos, neste caso: as florestas.

Em breve, teremos mais novidades sobre seiva😋

Video: https://short-link.me/11GYA

🎥🌳 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐚̃𝐨: 𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐀 | 𝐒𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐚

Já viu o novo vídeo da série Missão: TERRA?

Neste episódio, Tiago Lima, doutorando no CEF - Centro de Estudos Florestais e do CEABN InBIO, do Instituto Superior de Agronomia leva-nos numa viagem pelo seu trabalho de investigação sobre a produção de seiva em várias regiões de Portugal — uma prática tradicional com novas perspetivas para a sustentabilidade florestal.

Este estudo faz parte das atividades do Laboratório Associado Terra, que junta mais de 400 investigadores focados no uso sustentável da terra e na saúde dos ecossistemas. O vídeo mostra como a ciência aplicada pode ter um impacto direto na gestão dos recursos naturais e nas políticas públicas que moldam o nosso futuro. 🌍📊

▶️ Veja o vídeo completo e descubra como a seiva pode contar uma nova história sobre florestas e sustentabilidade: https://bit.ly/4mFo3Tz
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28/06/2025

Good advice from across the pond 😁

Please, use proper shoes for hiking and to reach the wonderful waterfalls and plunge pools across the Peneda-Gerês National Park.

Remember to bring proper shoes for more strenuous walking and hiking. Heels, open toed shoes, and flip flops are usually not ideal. Instead, opt for sturdy, rubber-soled hiking boots with ankle support for dirt and gravel trails or a trusty pair of sneakers for paved, urban pathways.

Image: Screenshot with text, Flippy floppies may lead to sloppy slippies.

27/06/2025

Last weekend we joined our neighbours on the yearly job of cleaning the common irrigation systems.

We walked the main channel to clean the pipes, the half pipes and take out dirt and fallen leaves accumulated during the Winter and Spring, making sure the water from the nearest river can arrive to each plot of land.

The rain will only be back by September or October, so it is essential to have access to water to irrigate corn, fruit orchards and vegetable gardens.

Join us on a hike through this very irrigation system, in Covide, or others around the mountains.

They are living heritage that allow us to understand how the people have been living in these mountains.
pt .xures .pt  
 

20/06/2025

Teach and learn.

18/06/2025

It's !

Daily actions can sum up to giant steps into a better world.

Sustainable gastronomy can help us to take care of our planet.

4 ways to practice sustainable gastronomy:

✔️ Buy from small-scale, local producers
✔️ Try local foods
✔️ Cook a traditional recipe with local ingredients
✔️ Say no to

04/06/2025

"Does tourism build up our world or tear it apart? The only answer to both of these questions is 'Yes’,” writes McClanahan in The New Tourist.

"It's on us as tourists to educate ourselves and to spend some time in the place, not just coming to take a photo and leave." https://bbc.in/4jbJpoA

26/05/2025

Within the scope of Projeto Bem Comum, we organized an experimental tour that reunited a communitarian land managament organization, a Cultural NGO and local companies that practice Ecotourism.
Nature, Art, Colaboration, Community and Sustainability together on a beautiful sunny day!

It will be available to book soon - would you join?

This tour will include:
🌱 tackling invasive species
🧑‍🎨using them to create art and learn about different techniques with a local artist
🥗 and enjoying a delicious meal full of seasonal, local products.

Agrupamento de Baldios da Serra do Gerês Rural Vivo Ap Silvestre - Collage

08/05/2025

Today the Peneda-Gerês National Park marks its 54th anniversary!

We suggest that you offer it the gift of signing a petition to stop the Arcos de Valdevez Wind Farm project: https://peticaopublica.com/?pi=PT125171

Not strictly within the Peneda-Gerês National Park, the affected area is within the Gerês-Xurés Transfrontier Biosphere Reserve, of which the Park is part of.

The project foresees the installation of 32 wind turbines, each with a tower height of 112 meters and a rotor diameter of 175 meters, with expected serious direct and indirect impacts on the cultural, architectural and archaeological heritage, in particular in the parish of Sistelo, classified as a National Monument in the Cultural Landscape category.

Noise, pasture areas, the Vez River springs, areas with relevant archaeological and rural architectural heritage, such as the megalithic nucleus of Lamas do Vez/Seida, wolf pits, pastoral shelters, historic pavements, etc., one of the most relevant geosites in the North of Portugal, due to the presence of traces of Pleistocene glaciations... Everything is at risk if the project goes ahead.

In the petition text you will be able to better understand all the expected impacts.

Sign up!

O seu apoio é muito importante. Apoie esta causa. Assine a Petição.