An innovative educational campaign promoting the environmental qualities of cork oak forests and natural cork products has quickly secured a strong global presence.

Launched by Amorim in Australia last August the ‘Save Miguel’ campaign — which features an educational website and online video presented by Hollywood actor Rob Schneider — spread rapidly, reaching thousands of consumers worldwide.

In just three months, the online video content associated with the campaign was viewed more than 450,000 times.

The Save Miguel website (www.savemiguel.com) attracted 50,000 unique visitors in its first month online. It continues to attract strong support, averaging 5000 unique visitors a month to take the total to-date to more than 85,000.

At the same time, a FaceBook group has attracted more than 4000 members — strangers united over the internet by their support for natural cork. Dozens of blogs all over the world have established links to Save Miguel content and interest in the campaign continues to build.

In the Save Miguel video, Rob Schneider embarks on a quest to find ‘Miguel’ and save him. Following an amusing journey he discovers that Miguel is in fact a mature cork oak tree, deep in the heart of the Portuguese forests.

“The video might be light-hearted but it has a serious message about climate change,” said Carlos de Jesus, Amorim’s director of marketing and communications.

“The educational component of this campaign is designed to inform consumers of the social, environmental and economic benefits of using cork products, and in particular the positive impact of purchasing wine with natural cork closures.”

Environmentalists argue that a decline in cork manufacturing — which could result from an increase in the use of alternative wine closures — would jeopardise the future of cork forests and lead to a loss of habitat and increased emissions of CO2.

It is estimated that the cork oak forests of the Mediterranean basin help offset a massive 10 million tonnes of CO2 every year, making them a significant carbon sink.

The forests also support a great natural biodiversity and prevent soil degradation across large areas of Portugal, Italy, Spain and North Africa.

The production of cork wine stoppers creates thousands of jobs and it has been estimated that more than 100,000 people in the Mediterranean depend directly and indirectly on the cork industry.

“Natural cork is the only wine closure that is truly environmentally friendly — renewable, recyclable and biodegradable, it also plays an important role in carbon dioxide retention,” Mr de Jesus said.

“And with the global wine industry placing greater emphasis on environmental sustainability Amorim, as the world’s leading cork producer, can play an important supportive role in those endeavours.”

For more information on the Save Miguel campaign visit www.savemiguel.com

Direct Wines, the world’s largest independent wine merchant, has entered into a partnership with Amorim that will see dozens of new cork oaks planted each year in Portuguese forests.

Amorim will plant the cork oaks on behalf of Laithwaites — one of several Direct Wines brands — in a move that underscores the United Kingdom-based wine merchant’s commitment to the use of natural cork.

“We are really pleased to be starting this initiative with Amorim,” said Laithwaites chairman Tony Laithwaite.

“We have had a successful working partnership with them for over a decade and setting up this scheme will see us help them preserve cork oak trees that stretch throughout seven different countries in two continents.”

As part of the partnership Laithwaites has installed recycling bins at its outlets throughout the UK to collect used corks. Amorim will use the corks to produce a myriad of products, ranging from eco-friendly flooring to designer shoes.

Both the tree planting and cork recycling initiatives emphasise the contribution the wine industry can make to the protection and maintenance of the Western Mediterranean cork forests.

“I congratulate Tony Laithwaite for his leadership on such a crucial issue,” said Carlos de Jesus, Amorim’s director of marketing and communications.

“Mr Laithwaite has long understood that cork and wine make sense together, not just because of tradition or complex wine technicalities, they also materialise the kind of sustainability balance that everybody is now talking about.”

Amorim’s Carlos de Jesus (left) assists Laithwaites founder Tony Laithwaite in planting a cork oak.