Legal protection for the Cork Forest dates back to the 13th Century. Today, many countries have legal guidelines for the cultivation and protection of cork oaks. In Portugal, the largest cork producer, cultivation is banned for forest groves on hillsides, uphill from watercourses or where tilling may loosen the soil excessively. It is illegal to harvest the bark on young trees or cut down a cork oak other than for essential forest thinning or if the tree is decrepit from age.

The mature tree may only be harvested for its bark once every nine years and only when the tree is healthy. The laws also require that farmers obtain a special license to convert land from cork forestry to other forms of agriculture.

With the help of reforestation programs funded by the European Union and the Portuguese Government, the area of cork forest under cultivation in Portugal is growing by about four per cent a year. Today, new trees are being planted at twice the rate at which old trees are dying.