Eutrophication of Azores lakes by intensive dairy farming

Lagoa das Furnas and Lagoa das Sete Cidades, two of São Miguel Island's landscape landmarks, face a growing eutrophication process, linked to the intensification of dairy production in the surrounding watersheds.

Excess fertilizer and animal waste run off into the lakes, feeding algae blooms that reduce the oxygen available in the water and threaten local aquatic ecosystems.

The problem is structural: it requires changes in farming practices across the whole watershed, not just isolated measures at the lakes themselves, and involves balancing an economic activity central to the Azores with the preservation of two of its most emblematic landscapes.