The cork industry further ensures the sustainability of the oak forests and helps protect the wildlife and flora that live in them.

Cork oak forests and the agro-sylvo-pastoral ecosystem that co-exists around them are critically important for their contribution to protecting the environment, sustaining wildlife and plants and also for securing the livelihoods of people in areas where the climate is hostile and the ground poor.

The removal of the cork without harming the tree is another specificity that derives from the anatomy and functioning of the cork oak’s periderm. When the cork is harvested, in the late spring and summer, it is essential that the cells that produce it (phellogen) are active and keep on dividing. These are the conditions in which the cork can be removed from the tree without damaging it. This is only possible with the water available in the plant, so it is important, especially in the dry Mediterranean summers, that the tissues of the cork oak are kept hydrated.