Our Commitment to Nature

The University of Coimbra joined the Nature Positive Universities network in October 2024, reinforcing its commitment to addressing institutional impacts and influence on nature.

The intense daily activity of the University of Coimbra generates environmental impacts, resulting from the consumption of resources on its campuses and in its built spaces - many of which are historic buildings classified as UNESCO World Heritage Sites -, from the journeys made by members of the academic community or from the behavior of each and every person who works, studies or simply visits. The UC has unique spaces that make a great contribution to biodiversity and deserve to be preserved in order to protect natural habitats. These include the Botanical Garden, the Herbarium (COI) - the largest Portuguese herbarium - the Algoteca and the Bacteria Culture Collection, as well as the Quinta de São Marcos.

In this sense, the Nature Positive commitment stems from the UC's concern to mitigate and avoid negative impacts and to promote positive impacts on the environment, recognizing that the conservation of nature and biodiversity is fundamental to the health of the planet and the well-being of society.

At the UC biodiversity mapping initiatives are carried out on campus as part of research activities, but also as part of curricular units, contributing to quality teaching and the acquisition of practical skills by UC students taking part in these classes.

These initiatives usually take place in the UC Botanical Garden and on the Polo II campus, focusing on assessing the diversity of plants, insects, soil fauna and small mammals. Among other results, 213 species of vascular plants and 32 spontaneously growing bryophytes have been identified in the Botanical Garden, more than 800 birds have been identified in more than 50 species, and more than 100 species of fungi have been recorded, 57 of which are “Research Grade” and have therefore been shared with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

Below we highlight the targets of the 2023-2027 Strategic Plan for the Environment and Climate Action dimension.

By 2027:

• Achieve 1 structuring intervention that guarantees the requalification and conservation of green spaces, per UC centre (centres I, II and III) and at Quinta de São Marcos.

• Reduce the UC's carbon footprint by 5-12% (in tons CO2,E, considering direct emissions, scope 1, and indirect emissions, scope 2).

• Achieve a 10% share of self-consumption from renewable energy sources.

To achieve the proposed goals and strategic guidelines, an action plan has been established. The Sustainability and Social Responsibility Plan of the University of Coimbra 2023-2027 reflects the Institution's strategy to promote the integration of a holistic perspective on sustainable development, as advocated in the whole-school approach, and to strengthen the integration of these concerns into the essential functions of university activity – learning and teaching, research, organisational governance, culture and operations, and external leadership – aligning them with national and international best practices and targets.

Learn more about recent actions regarding the promotion and conservation of biodiversity:

Find out more about...

• UC's annual contribution to biodiversity in the Sustainability Reports.
• UC's commitment to SDGs 14 and 15.
• the inclusion of criteria towards sustainable public procurement, which is part of the UC's commitment to SDG 12.

Find out about the biodiversity activities organised by the different structures of the University of Coimbra here.

The following structures at the University of Coimbra play a fundamental role in the preservation and enhancement of biodiversity, carrying out concrete actions that drive the sustainability of our planet. Through its various structures, the University of Coimbra actively contributes to biodiversity conservation, demonstrating its commitment to a more sustainable future.

The Department of Life Sciences is one of the eleven departments of the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Coimbra. It combines teaching and research in the areas of Anthropology, Ecology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Microbiology. It has one of the strongest research teams in our country and the teaching staff is highly diversified and specialised. Through its 9 research centres and other associated structures, it has a vast international network of collaborations and research projects. Promoting the importance of the natural capital in different types of habitats (including large urban gardens, with a wide range of habitats, as the Botanic Garden of the University of Coimbra and other large peri-urban natural areas belonging to the University of Coimbra) not only because of its intrinsic value, but also because its role on ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services, is a hot topic for different research groups in this Department.

The Botanic Garden of the University of Coimbra is a UC Cultural Extension and Training Support Unit with the mission of research, biodiversity conservation, education and dissemination of science, with a special focus on raising awareness of the importance of plant diversity, climate change and the sustainable use of resources. It receives students not only for academic formation but also civic participation, such as volunteer programs (gardening activities, invasive species control).

The UNESCO Chair in Biodiversity and Conservation for Sustainable Development was established at the University of Coimbra in 2014, strengthening cooperation and support for a network of researchers and higher education and Research and Development institutions between Portugal, Angola, Mozambique and other Portuguese-speaking countries.

The Centre for Functional Ecology is a Research and Development unit hosted by the Department of Life Sciences of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra that brings together researchers from all fields of ecology, integrating knowledge from genes to the biome level to disentangle the mechanisms responsible for biodiversity maintenance, and for the composition, structure and functioning of biological communities and ecosystems. Centre for Functional Ecology holds a strong commitment to knowledge transfer to the general public and to the productive sector, with emphasis on the sustainability of territories and local communities.

The Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre is focused on the study of aquatic systems and the implementation of European Directives and Strategies to support the sustainable development, focusing its mission on scientific research, education, knowledge and technology transfer, science dissemination and Ocean Literacy promotion. The Centre has expertise to approach scientifically and technologically all types of aquatic systems, from river basins, to estuaries, and coastal and large marine ecosystems, in a context of global changes and cumulative anthropogenic impacts.

The Online Herbarium houses around 800,000 specimens and its aims are to preserve plant material permanently for reference and research, to provide plant material and information for biodiversity research and to publicize the importance of plant biodiversity. Among other activities, it participates in the global WeDigBio initiative, with the aim of making data on biodiversity that is “hidden” in natural history collections accessible.

The Coimbra Collection of Algae is a microbial biological resources center with expertise in biodiversity, cryopreservation, molecular biology and microalgae biotechnology. The aim of Algoteca de Coimbra is to promote sustainability and improve the quality of life through microalgae. To this end, it carries out fundamental and applied research into microalgae, providing high quality products and services, aiming to valorise the biomass and search for new products applicable in the food, pharmaceutical, energy and environmental areas, with one of the main lines linked to biodiversity and conservation including classical and molecular taxonomy, cytology and ultrastructure and cryopreservation. The Algoteca includes one of the largest collections of live microalgae and 3 laboratories.