1

DRAFT RESOLUTION NO. 201 /X

" DEFEND THE MOUNTED, CHERISH THE ROW OF THE CORK "

Exhibition of reasons

1-From the position of Portugal in the cork sector at the world level

It shows our historia, which already in the fourteenth century there was export of cork, and dated

already from the thirteenth century laws of protection to the overiro

Today, the cortician sector puts our Country in a world-wide, cymeeering place,

with about 54% percent of the production, and about 70% percent of the total world transformation.

From the transformed cork in the Country, about 90% is exported, representing recipes

of the order of the 850 annual MEuros, about 2.7% of the national total exports.

In the business plan, the cork sector means about 900 companies

transformers, while in the employment plan it represents about 12 a to 14000

manufacturing jobs manufactures direct, and more about 6500 seasonal jobs

in the extraction and other forest operations.

It should be noted, however, that the summit position that world the Country holds

currently in this area is not the final remnant of an inherited situation, but rather the

result of a response from the business sector, not least in the last four

decades.

In effect, of a country essentially producer and exporter of cork in state

raw, up to the sixties, Portugal passed, in a short period of time, the

turn practically all cork produced and even some imported.

2

This remarkable evolution was the result of a bet on technological innovation in the

productive process, with reflection in the improvement of the quality of the corks and

in new products, but also in the modernization of management and a strong initiative

business in the sector, being today the companies adjusted to the logic of globalization,

which entails the ability to respond to a constantly evolving market and

increasingly demanding.

1.2-From the overter

The National Forest Inventory, recently presented, evidenced that in

terms of pure stands, dominant and young mists, the overlapping occupied, in

2005/6, the first national place in terms of forest areas, with 736,700 ha,

following himself the brave pine with 710,600 ha, and the eucalyptus with 646,700 ha.

By regions, the overiro is the first forest species in the NUT II-Alentejo, with

71.6%, at NUT II-Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, with 21.2%, and at the NUT II-Algarve, with

3.86% of the total.

Although the forest area occupied with overlap has grown over time, the

its current summit position stems from the devastating effect caused by the fires

in the stands of angry pine trees, which saw its geographical distribution

decrease from 976,100 ha to 710,600 ha, only in a decade.

But the riding of the sober is not simply a forest-producing space of

raw material, the cork. In reality, I have constituted an economic and social system

complex, which has contributed to the fixation of the rural population. Thousands of

small producers obtain, in addition to the extraction of cork, yields

complimentary with creation or fattening of the black pig, beef cattle and ovine,

of the hunt, the catch of mushrooms or aromatic herbs, of the production of honey and of

Waiting for medronho.

The overhead mounted is still the habitat of a unique fauna and flora, with species

protected.

If the species of the brave pine has suffered the tremendous impact of the fires

forest, over the overhead mounted weighs a no less devastating threat:

a set of diseases and various factors that is causing the

the weakness of the overwits, worrying levels of mortality, as well as a

decline in the yield of its production, which until now has not known

reassuring solutions for forest producers!

2-From the use of cork

The cork knows, today, very varied uses, ranging from the production of

stoppers (68%), civil construction (15%), the automotive industry (7%), and others, where if

includes both the fashion and the aviation and aerospace industry, in a total of 10%.

But notwithstanding the progress in diversification in terms of use of the

cork, the main use and viabilization of this row continues to be the production

of corks for wine bottling, and other drinks.

3

In effect, it is a secular, historically documented reality, the strong relationship

between the production of cork and the production of wine.

The world wine market is still dominated by Europe, which holds about

half of the world vine area and consumes about 72% of the total production. The

current framework of this activity is currently characterized by the emergence of

new and important producers, in what is already designating "New Wine World",

expected that with the continuous internationalization of the market if it comes to

record an increase in global wine consumption by 2010.

In this framework, the market for the corks for the wine sector will continue to be, in a

near future, the main destination of our cork, being strategic to

research in the sense of whether to enable its application to new products of larger

value.

3-From the threats and challenges facing the sector

But this whole picture has, however, come to know growing threats to the

market of cork, and a worrying trend from the point of view of production

forest, already mentioned above.

Among the threats are aggressive commercial campaigns and movements in the

sense of the replacement of cork cork by corks and other synthetic sealants in the

bottling wine, which poses a serious risk to sustainability

economic and social of a sector that has its viability based justly on the

production of corks.

But, the threats also stem from internal difficulties associated with the fires

forest and a persistent decline of the overhead mounted.

This decline expresses itself in the continuing death of overs, loss of vigour

vegetative of many trees, and in the quantitative and qualitative decrease of cork

produced.

And this decrease in production, in quantity and quality, puts two

fundamental concerns.

The first translates into an availability of cork currently already lower than the

processing and export capacity of the industry, and the second translates

in a breach of the cork yield for the producers, which decreases their

ability to invest and improve its business in the future.

This situation, although the subject of many studies over time, does not have

found satisfactory global responses from the part of the scientific medium.

To this table add, in terms of the future, the likely negative effects of

climate change, which today concite, finally, the world's attentions.

But the warnings regarding cork have not been coming from national sources alone.

4

In fact, over the years such concerns have been the subject of studies and

reports, including from the initiative of international ecologists organisations

unsuspecting as the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), the Rainforest Alliance

or the Forest Stewardship, which have warned of the consequences deeply

troubling, from an economic, social and environmental point of view, of the reduction of

production of cork or of the forest area to it dedicated.

In short, it is not only facing a challenge constituted by the decline of the mounted

of overspin, translated into a quantitative and qualitative decrease of cork

as a raw material, as in the face of an economic and social challenge that can be

come to translate, in the future, by the economic non-viability of the extraction of cork if the

price to be paid for a lower quality cork not bearing extraction costs

growing louder, in the face of a productivity that has not evolved over the course of

decades.

It is absolutely imperative to find, and quickly, the identification of the

causes of the decline of the overlap and point out the solutions to combat it.

4-Of national responses

4.1 From the business fabric and associativism

In the internal plan, it is apparent that processing companies have modernized

its manufacturing processes and sought to diversify the products, while its

associations have been searching for even concerting strategies with companies and

Spanish associations.

In the plan of forest production, it is visible in many producers an own effort

of investment and initiative in the improvements of the management methods of the assembled.

However, although with different emphases, there are concerns on the side of the industry,

particularly with respect to the future of the conditions of forest production, and the side

of the forest producers there is a great deal of concern about the lack of results to the

level of research, and a concern with

the lack of consistency, consistency and continuity of policies in this area.

In the contacts with entrepreneurs, and their associations, no one has heard of the expected

claim or request for financial support, but a very clear feeling of

that the State has not acted as it demands the situation of world leader that the Country

holds in this economic sector.

A forest activity where the overiro starts the production of cork at 25-30

years and the return on investment occurs at 60-70, puts naturally

challenges that require a national, consistent, long-term strategy of

way to ensure conditions of sustainability and progress in a sector that has

a potential for production and export that can reach, in the future, twice as many of its

current values.

4.2 Of the research activity

5

The research directed towards the transformation of cork has been supported by a

positive evolution in the response to market-induced innovation requirements,

having allowed an improvement in production processes, aiming to overcome

some limitations and problems detected and attributed to the use of the cork of

cork. This research has also produced astonishing results

relative to the most worth in terms of health, the environmental value of the production of the

cork and new applications.

It deserves prominence, for the negative symbolism of the situation, the fact that researchers and

national companies being awarded internationally for their effort of

research in the field of processing, and there is nothing similar in the

Country that is a world leader.

When we look at the research applied to the overlap, researchers and

forest producers recognize that the Country has known a systematic activity

up to the fifties, under the responsibility of the team led by the Engagement. Vieira

of the Nativity. With the stimulus of the given example, the name of this researcher has been

associated with an award instituted to highlight annually the best exploration

subericulture.

After that, of numerous projects financed by the public erarium and by funds

community, the research activity is dispersed, disconnected from

strategic objectives, and without palpable results, which leaves the producers

helpless and concerned in the face of the continued decline of the mounted.

In the meantime, the Government has already taken some steps towards structuring a

coordinated response in terms of research on the decline of the mounted.

In the framework of a profound change in the approach of the cork sector and its

problems, in a framework of reform of the Public Administration and mobilization of the

Society, it is important that temporal objectives are established, with challenges

mobilizers and holding accountable.

The bet on research must proceed, of course, also in the processing

of the cork.

Here the challenges are in the continuous improvement of the quality of the cork, with special

relief for the eradication of TCA contaminations (designated by " taste a

rolha "), the cork defect most referred to by the wine industry, but also from

innovation and diversification of products based on cork, with a view to achieving

high value-added products similar to the cork. Their use, by

example, in the isolation of dwellings with a view to the highest energy efficiency,

can and should constitute a challenge with multiple gains for the national economy,

but there is a need for there to be investments in fully innovative solutions,

some waiting for only concretization.

The ongoing technological innovation is expected to continue with the bet on

improvement of the processing methods of cork, so as to make them

less pollutants and more environmentally friendly.

Finally, effort in research should privilege the regions where if

concentrates the processing and forest production activity , in an optics

of fostering a closer cooperation between research and users.

6

4.3-From the attitude of the Country

We cannot help but question ourselves, if in a Country with this heritage

privileged exists today a public attitude that considers it and values as if

warranted. And the conclusion does not present itself very heartening.

In effect, even though most Portuguese people have the perception that

Portugal is a world leader in the production and transformation of cork, the feeling is the

of which as an economic activity this cork sector appears as something that

drags on from the past and marked by an inexorable extinction destination, face to the

apparent signs of the progress that some associate with the replacement of cork by

alternative materials of synthetic origin.

For lack of adequate information and dissemination, they are few the Portuguese who

know and value the modern uses that cork already has, and its

potentials in a more demanding future in technological and environmental terms.

But, how can we develop external commercial campaigns in the sense of whether

promote the use of cork corks, when at the same time we have

national producers, of quality wine, which make use of synthetic sealants?

4.4-From the attitude of the State

As for the state, the main criticisms that are currently woven focus on the

absence of a public body or mechanism that would accompany and secure a

strategic attitude of the Country in this area. In this connection, it is to be reflected that the Strategy

National for Forests does not concretize a specific strategy for this

important forest row.

The research effort, manifestly has not obeyed a strategy

articulated and focussed on the solution of the current problems and challenges that are

placed to the future of this sector.

At the level of university education there is not a course, a master's degree, a

specialization or even a discipline, which are dedicated to cork.

It seems noticeable, today, that in an era where economies globalize, the

performance of states has to be rethought in such a way as to prevent unsettling

of the markets by the strength of the companies and world-scale groups lead to the

destruction of small-scale economic activities, and whose sustainability already

cannot be ensured by the traditional game of the market.

In some regions of countries such as Spain and Italy, measures have been taken

legislative proposals that recommend the use of cork stoppers in the bottling of

wines, and in some cases, they force such use, when it deals with wines with

controlled designation of origin (DOC).

As it easily found, such measures did not specifically target the defence of the

cork, but the defence of branded wines from these countries. But it becomes apparent,

7

however, that in doing so, those countries considered that cork was a factor of

qualification of wine, and who have not hesitated to act in the interests of the respective

savings.

Despite the national wine consuming only 3% of the corks produced, such a fact does not

should constitute an argument for not associating national quality wines with

use of cork as a sealant.

Portugal today has a new community funding framework that has

important resources planned for the innovation sector and development

of the national forest, as well as of instruments to use them rationally,

particularly to achieve targets such as those relating to cork.

Within the framework of the QREN, support measures are planned for the constitution of Pólos de

Regional competitiveness, in turn provided for in the Technological Plan.

These are clusters of companies, laboratories, technological centres and

educational institutions, of a particular region, with the aim of promoting a

set of complementary economic activities.

The poles of competitiveness can have a local, national or global vocation and the

its development will be supported through various policies at the level of the

training, marketing, networking, instruments of merger between

companies and fostering innovation.

Its launch calls for an interministerial coordination of policies and actors in a

new national framework for governance of innovation.

This measure, which inspires itself in diverse experiments carried out in several

european countries, it must, however, be appropriate to the nature and challenges of the sector of

cork, with two well-distinct, but interconnected components that are the production

forest and the transformation of cork, each with dynamics and problems

own.

In this framework, going to meet the expectations of companies, from producers

forest, and their associations, the universities and researchers, the

Government has the historic opportunity to contribute decisively to the creation of

a Cluster or of a Competitiveness Pole for the cork industry.

In parallel, it feels the urgent need for a national observatory for

the overiro.

On the other hand, the existence of cork-producing countries, and facing challenges

similar, opens up opportunity, and invites, to international cooperation.

It should be noted, in this purpose, that Portugal celebrated with Spain, in 6 of

April 2003, a " Memorandum of Cooperation on the Forest Species of the

Superiro and the Azinheira ", which he did not, however, meet, major developments

up to this date.

In conclusion, conditions are gathered, perhaps unrepeatable, so that the Country if

organize, in a sectoral and territorial perspective, and prepare to defend and

8

to value not only a historical, cultural, economic and social heritage, as

an activity of vital importance for the future.

5-Of the new allies of the cause of cork

Alongside the persistent effort of individualities and national institutions, entities

idogenous international, linked to environmental research, attest to odd nature

of the cork's productive system in terms of the environmental sustainability of its

production, contributing to the maintenance of biodiversity, for the fixation of

CO2, for the protection of soils against erosion, for the increase in the rate of

infiltration of the rainwater, and well still, through employment, to the

economic and social sustainability of the poorest regions, helping in that way

to combat the phenomenon of desertification.

At the beginning of a new millennium, marked already clearly by an attention and

growing ecological and environmental concerns on the side of consumers, to which

start to answer some governments, the production of cork gains, thus, new and

significant valiant, and potential allies for a more promising future.

6-A national cause and a cause of future

The cork and its valences in economic, social and environmental matters, make it,

therefore, a good with future.

Sustaining and strengthening the Country's position in this sector should constitute a cause

national around which the Portuguese can mobilize.

The Portuguese has already shown that they mobilise around causes and of

national or solidarity objectives (see the case of Timor).

In an increasingly competitive world on a global scale, no developed country

can waste an opportunity to be a world leader, be it in sport, in the

science, in culture or in economics. The situation Portugal holds in this sector

should constitute an important contribution to the strengthening of national self-esteem, and,

consequently, for stimulation of progress in other areas.

Hence, defend the Portuguese forest, and within it the superman as tree

emblematic of the national forest, can constitute a mobilizing cause, because it is

fair, it is in future, and in it we will count on many real and potential allies at the scale

european and world wide.

This cause can be assumed by the civil society if correctly disclosed,

starting with schools, in a process that associates the defence of the over-the-

enhancement of the multifunctionality of the assembled and other concerns of

environmental and social nature. Surely the Portuguese will know to contribute to

the defence of the overlap and cork, specifically preferring the consumption of

wines using cork as a sealant, and other products derived from cork.

6.1-From the role of the Assembly of the Republic

9

Much though the present challenge, in general, the Portuguese society,

particular responsibilities fit the main economic players in the industry

and of the forest sector, research and teaching, and the authorities. And in this

process, the Government competes in the initiative of the mobilization of these agents,

ensuring that it is concerted and taken up a national strategy concerning the

row of cork, with the necessary resources allocated to research and incentive

to innovation on all fronts of the sector.

When deciding to constitute one the Working Group " DEFEND THE MOUNTED,

VALUING THE ROW OF THE CORK " , the Assembly of the Republic gave a

first step in the sense of studying and determining the nature and extent of your

participation in the effort that the Country comes to dedicate to this cause.

In passing the present Draft Resolution, the Assembly of the Republic

will take on a decisive political commitment.

Such a commitment means:

 contribute to the cork taking on a national priority mobilising the Portuguese and the various actors.

 to continue and deepen, through the already constituted Working Group, contact with the sector, so as to promote other initiatives,

including legislative, which may be useful to this cause.

 Follow up, through the Permanent Specialized Committees connected to the Economy, Agriculture, Science and Teaching, the Government's action in the

concretization of the recommendations of the Present Resolution,

particularly in the definition of a strategy for the sector, its

term targets, whether in the field of expansion of production and

export,

be in the diversification and promotion of cork products, or

in combating the decline of the mounted.

As a result, it should be appreciated annually, in Plenary, a

report of progress on these objectives.

Thus, heard representatives from all these areas, the deputies undersigned

present the following,

PROPOSAL

The Assembly of the Republic deliberates, in the constitutional and regimental terms

applicable, propose to the Government that:

1º Dynamize the constitution of a Cluster or Competitiveness Pole in the area

processing, and a National Observatory for the Mounted and for cork,

10

that are appropriate to the underpinning of a national strategy of

development of the sector.

2º Proceed to the surveying and evaluation of all R&D projects, in

course, of public and private initiative, with a view to coordination and

rationalization of all means, specifically human resources,

materials and financial involved.

3º Equacione supports for the creation of awards to be awarded annually to

personalities or institutions, whose scientific activity, or of other nature,

directly contribute to the safeguarding and dissemination of the assembled, of its

products, specifically from cork.

4º Reforce and articulate the materials pertaining to the overiro and the azinion in the frame

of the National Plan to Fight Against Desertification and drought.

5º Adjustment to the National Strategy for Forests and the Development Plan

Rural, in terms of priorities and allocation of resources, to the importance

strategic recognized and attributed to the surmounted surmounted.

6º Support the introduction, at the level of teaching, of disciplines or even of courses,

related to cork.

7º Reinforce vocational training in the activities connected to the management of the

mounted, and to the extraction and processing of cork.

8º Adopt measures that promote the use, on the labels of the bottles of

wine, from the symbol relating to cork-CORK ®, developed following

an international initiative coordinated by Portugal, with support from the FAO, and

already registered internationally.

9º Assess and use all possibilities for articulation and cooperation

international in the defence of cork, as the product of a European ecosystem and

single Mediterranean.

10º Promoting the speedy realization of the " Luso-Spanish Observatory of

Accompaniment of the stands of Sobreiro and Azinheira ".

Palace of S. Bento, April 18, 2007

The Deputies