Associação BioLiving is an award-winning non-profit NGO which motto is “Nature and Education for
All”. Its objectives are, among others, to promote sustainability through the engagement in
environmental citizenship and public participation for the protection of nature while boosting the
social economy and fostering inclusion, peace and solidarity, using education, natural resources and
the protection of nature as leitmotiv. BioLiving also provides services such as monitoring and
scientific consultancy in the fields of forest, biodiversity and environmental education, essentially
demonstrating that nature belongs to everyone and to all.
The association was brought about by a group of people with diverse backgrounds but with a
common thread: all had been working within systems that are the epitome of reluctance to bring
about much needed change, namely in politically-dependent institutions. The dissatisfaction with the
latent inertia imbedded in these systems that bring out the underlying culture of dealing with
problems that “aren’t supposed to be fixed”, was for the founders the stimulus to break the vicious
cycle: create the association as to proactively take autonomous action working within their
professional fields.
BioLiving’s team includes biologists, forest engineers, land planners, ecotourism and sports
professionals, designers and marketeers, historians and professional environmental
educators/science communicators. Even though BioLiving is a recent NGO, most of our team have
somehow been working for over 10 years.
Our work includes:
- Environmental educational services for municipalities (e.g. Lousada, Ovar, Albergaria-a-Velha);
- Environmental education strategies for schools (eg. Lousada, Albergaria-a-Velha)
- Large regional projects for citizenship, environmental education and habitat restoration
(BioLousada, Biologia a Plantar o Futuro, PlantarLousada, LousadaCharcos); - Collaboration in European KA2 projects (eg. IMPRINT+ and FOREST-IN)
- Development of social inclusion environmental projects for mentally and physically disabled persons (Albergaria-a-Velha);- Partner in the KA2 project NGEurope that aims to educate a new generation of associative leaders while also giving support to existing civic movements and NGOs, in order to promote a green economy and social cohesion through participation and civic mobilization;
- Collaboration with local social NGOs to promote environmental education and with the University of Aveiro promoting scientific culture, citizenship and showing, in close proximity, the cultural opportunities existing in the region (+Aveiro)
- Consulting services to municipalities and the private sector about sustainable forest management and habitat restoration;
- Provision of environmental education activities for all types of audiences from pre-school children to seniors;
- Provision of scientific camps for children, teens or university students (BioCamp®);
- Organization of international youth volunteering camps in the fields of forest education and management and intercultural exchanges.
Our team’s experience also includes:
– Educational services for protected areas (e.g. Bussaco National Forest – BNF, Parque Ambiental
Bussaquinho);
– Award-winning social cohesion projects that created green jobs for prisoners and elderly people
(BNF);
– Award-winning digital projects that promote literacy and environmental awareness (Bussaco Digital, best communication project for Natura 2000 areas in 2015);
– Scientific work in areas that goes from species and ecosystem ecology to sustainable forest
management;
– Collaboration in LIFE+ project BRIGHT in Bussaco National Forest.