[3][4] He was also Minister for Quality of Life in the Democratic Alliance government, and one of the first Portuguese politicians to call attention to ecological problems, having an influence far beyond the tiny size of the parties he led.

Ribeiro Telles started teaching at the Higher Institute of Agronomy (ISA) in 1963, as a disciple of Francisco Caldeira Cabral, the pioneer of landscape architecture in Portugal.

[4] In the Lisbon City Council Ribeiro Telles worked at the Division of Arborisation and Gardening (1951-55) until he assumed the role of Landscape Architect in the Office of Urbanisation Studies (directed by the engineer Guimarães Lobato) in 1955,and remained until 1960.

The most recognized project of his career is the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's garden, which he signed with António Viana Barreto and which earned him, ex aequo, the Valmor Prize of 1975.

In 1945, he participated in the foundation of the National Culture Center, of which he is now the number one associate, and also President of the General Assembly, in whose sessions he accentuated his opposition to Salazar's regime.

After the Revolution of 25 April 1974, with Francisco Rolão Preto, Henrique Barrilaro Ruas, João Camossa de Saldanha, Augusto Ferreira do Amaral, Luís Coimbra, among others, he founded the People's Monarchist Party, whose Directory he presided over.

In 2016, at the IndieLisboa film festival, the documentary A Vossa Terra - landscapes of Gonçalo Ribeiro Teles, by director João Mário Grilo, was presented.