About us

Diálogos do Bosque

Diálogos do Bosque is a Portuguese company, specialized and exclusively dedicated to the cactus pear / prickly pear cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica), with more than 12 years of experience, with nurseries capable of supplying cactus pads / cladodes for new projects of different types, at any time of the year, with its own orchards as well as several processing units, located in the Alentejo, which is one of the regions in Portugal with favorable conditions for the development of this generous cactus of the Opuntia genus from the Cactaceae family.

In addition to fresh organic products (prickly pears, cactus pads/cladodes and young pads/nopalitos), since 2013 we have been committed to development and innovation, and have thus had the opportunity to develop and implement processing processes, some of them innovative, to produce more than 30 different products based on this cactus, particularly for the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries where they are used pure or as an ingredient.

Over the years, we have also selected, refined and multiplied cactus varieties that have proven to be the most productive, resistant and fastest-growing.

As a result of this work, and especially since 2020, we have also been focused on developing various models and services with the aim of enabling the use of this cactus for the mass production of biomass, in order to be a sustainable, renewable, economical and environmentally friendly source for various purposes such as: 

Production of biofuels, namely biogas and bioethanol, 

Production of electricity, 

Production of forage and animal fodder, 

Production of flour for human and/or animal nutrition, 

Soil regeneration and combating desertification, 

Firebreaks and natural hedges, 

Carbon credits, 

without forgetting the social aspects where these cactus can play a fundamental role in improving and solving some of the problems that unfortunately certain areas of our planet are currently facing. In this way, they can be fundamental to the survival of people and animals, making it possible to keep people in the place where they were born and grew up, thus avoiding the need to migrate to other areas and/or countries, as well as helping to create favorable conditions for other crops.

In 2023, we were world pioneers in obtaining the first certification for carbon credits based on cacti, covering all our orchard and nursery areas, with different densities ranging from 2,500 to 60,000 cacti/hectare. 

It is important to note that the cactus we have used and developed, when implemented at high densities, manages to have a carbon (CO2) capture performance per hectare 4.3 times higher than the Amazon rainforest.

As a result of the development and confirmation in practice of the various models we have carried out over the last years, we are currently quite comfortable and capable of developing and implementing any type of project based on cactus biomass, where it is possible to achieve results in the order of 800 to 1000 tons of biomass per hectare per year, right after the first year, and sometimes, in more favorable conditions, it may be possible to carry out the first cuts/harvests of biomass 6 months after planting. 

When used to produce electricity through cactus bioenergy, it is also possible to achieve very low operating costs, ranging from 20€ to 25€/MWh, and in some cases even lower.