The Forest Products Association says the annual cleanup strategy to prevent fires should be rethought

Fuel strip management on forested land is aimed at preventing rural fires, but ANEFA – the National Association of Forestry, Agriculture and Environmental Companies questions the need for annual clearing and argues that the strategy should be rethought.

“We do not fully understand the need to repeat annually for the required standards, that is, grass height and similar situations,” said ANEFA board president Pedro Serra Ramos. , in Luse’s statements.

The forestry engineer added that annual cleanups for the association “present an additional concern”: in many cases, people focus on clearing areas where it is mandatory, “but then retain management of the forested areas.”

“That is, since there is not enough money for everything, in the end it is noticed that there are concerns – what little money there is goes to cleaning, so as not to be fined – but then the forest still has to be managed, because there is no more money,” he explained, acknowledging that this might not be “all that positive in terms of preventing” rural fires.

It is time for the leader to “get the various actors involved in this back to the table” to discuss “whether this strategy is worth pursuing” because the 50-meter strip around the building “and then everything else is a disgrace.”

According to the latest annual report from the Integrated Rural Fire Management System, since 2022 (the 2023 document will soon be shared with the government) “73,248 hectares were reported globally (down 14,210 hectares from 2021, a decrease of 17%), not having reached the accumulated value established by the subjects.”

In terms of fuel management, the document reports: 65,693 hectares (ha) in 2019, 70,387 hectares in 2020 and 88,058 hectares in 2021.

These figures do not include “due to the lack of adequate reporting mechanisms, the majority of private entities (owners of forests and crops, individual or collective) and local authorities,” who carry a very significant weight, the report says.

For the Institute of Nature Conservation and Forestry (ICNF), the reduction was due to a 50% decrease in the area created by controlled fire and burning (1829 ha) and a 10% decrease in the area created by mosaic (14523 ha). ), compared to the previous year.

The document also recorded a slight increase in the implementation of the primary network (7871 ha) and the protection of valuable areas through 18 pilot projects (1901 ha).

The 2022 report emphasizes that “there is an increasingly urgent need to strengthen measures that encourage private sector participation and subsequent investment in forestry, good post-exploitation management,” among other things.

However, the clearing of agricultural and forest land, which is due to be completed by April 30, is suffering from labor shortages across the country.

“There are areas that have suffered more than others, all companies are suffering a little due to the lack of qualified personnel to carry out the work,” said Pedro Serra Ramos, stressing that companies, realizing that the situation “will continue”, have invested. in mechanization.

The reality is also known to the National Federation of Forest Owners’ Associations (FNAPF).

“There are already cleaning robots. There are other, more advanced systems, they have become very mechanized,” said President Luis Damas, acknowledging that there will always be a dependence on labor, manual labor or workers specialized in operating machines.

In areas such as Abrantes, Santarem district, Portuguese workers can still be found, while other companies “already have teams made up of immigrants” in areas such as Viseu or Oliveira do Hospital, where industry is strong .

The leader said that “there are some labor challenges in coastal regions,” although in inland areas some work may complement local activities.

Pedro Serra Ramos stressed that “in most cases” immigrants are also “not ready to do this work.”

“The trend will be to increasingly look for mechanization solutions that in some way compensate for these labor shortages, because “putting young people into work, for example, with robots and deforestation, is different from taking over brush cutters and trim the bushes,” he emphasized.

According to Serra-Ramos, prevention should be achieved through forest management, which has not happened, and “the proof of this is the level of afforestation,” which is “virtually zero.”

“Owners often don’t have the income to pay for professional forest management, and so the government must invest much more than clean, thorough clearing of small areas just to protect urban spaces,” he said.

Seven years after the tragic fires of 2017, he stressed, “the strategy for professional forest management should have already been defined”, instead of “focusing only on raising people’s awareness” and preparing for the future prevention of forests due to climate change and rural fires.

“It’s time to sit down at the table and do what we […] can be called a plan for the sustainable development of Portuguese forests,” proposed the head of ANEFA, when, despite half the deadline and only 870,000 trees planted, this is far from the European Union’s goal of planting 3,000 million trees in the European space.