About Us
Myrica Faial Permaculture Farm
Myrica Faial Permaculture Farm was born in 2017, in Capelo, Faial Island, where three neo-rural people decided to found a farm using Permaculture methods and living soil. Later, the project continued with only two members: Sofia Gigante and Julien Floro. It was on a visit to Faial by friends (who are also marine biologists) in 2016 and during a discussion about the foundations of our project that the idea of the Azores being the chosen place arises. Shortly afterwards, the idea of living in the Azores became a reality. After a few months of searching through the dazzling greenery of Faial, the west side revealed a space with excellent potential.

Myrica Faial – Permaculture Farm
The farm is established on a slope of the Cabeço Verde volcano, facing south-southwest with several hectares of forest and pasture. The forest plots were in abandonment, being gradually recovered with Agroecological practices for the production of vegetables, fruits and animals in MPB.
The volcanic soil of Myrica is rich in minerals due to the volcanic eruption of the Capelinhos volcano, resulting in a sandy soil, deep but limited in organic matter. The regenerative agriculture practices implemented on the farm have allowed an increase in organic matter in the soil, increasing biodiversity and life in the soil. Living soil is Myrica’s motto, which allows the production of high quality vegetables, fruits and animals, rich in nutrients, for local consumption.
The Founders
Sofia Gigante

Sofia Gigante is a nature lover by intrinsic passion, a marine biologist with an academic background, managing partner and agricultural producer of the company Myrica Faial Permaculture Farm. It was in the Degree in Marine Biology in the south of Portugal (Faro) that she gained stronger notions of the Human impact on the Planet inherent to her decisions and consequently the positive negative realities of these human actions on Ecosystems.
The approaches and challenges in Nature Conservation are increasingly an area of interest to be explored and the knowledge that many of the environmental imbalances have their origin in Man’s abusive need to take more than he needs, leads her to feel a greater responsibility to oppose this unsustainable path. These themes will over time shape her conscience and structure her motivations.
In 2010, she began a new journey in search of something that characterizes and motivates her in the work and personal areas, traveling to several destinations in South America, where she ended up working on Nature Conservation projects such as Ecuador with sea turtles and sharks, passing through Brazil in the heart of the Amazon with the pink dolphin (red dolphin), later arriving in the Canary Islands with marine cetaceans in protected marine areas.
Julien Floro

Julien Floro, born in Loulé, Algarve, graduated in Marine Biology at the University of Algarve, where a passion for marine conservation was born, which led him to Kenya, Africa where he interned at an NGO that developed projects in marine conservation (cetaceans, fisheries and social). This experience stimulated him to continue his training, resulting in an international master’s degree in Marine Conservation and Biodiversity, in Gent in Belgium and Oviedo in Spain and the development of his thesis at CENAIM in Ecuador, the theme being the development of a marine protected area on the island of El Pelado.
During his student journey, he majored in Permaculture, Regenerative Agriculture and Soil Biology. While working in Madagascar as lead scientist at the NGO Reefdoctor, he decided to embark on a post-academic journey into the world of living soil and food sustainability. This training duality encouraged him to become a regenerative farmer for food sustainability and ecosystem protection.