The Regional Secretariat for Natural Resources, through the Regional Directorate for Forest Resources,  has tagged about 4,000 trees under the “Legally Natural Christmas Tree – 2013” campaign, an initiative intended to safeguard Azorean forests.

Since the beginning of this campaign, whose first edition took place in 2010, the forest services from each island have tagged a total of 13 thousand trees throughout the archipelago, namely cryptomeria, cypress and Chinese arborvitae.

With this initiative, the Government of the Azores intends to inform consumers regarding the fact that the Christmas tree they are buying comes from forest areas where the cutting of trees was necessary to improve the quality of timber and the health of forests.

The Christmas trees tagged under this campaign came from areas where the cutting of trees has been authorised due to the density of forest areas.
The tags, dully numbered and sealed, must be kept in place from the moment the tree is cut until its final destination in order to allow monitoring its origin.