The Madeira government intends to carry out a “thorough assessment” of the damage caused by the fire that has raged on the island for 13 days by the end of the week, and the results will be presented publicly, the archipelago’s agriculture minister said on Tuesday.
“By the end of the week we will have time to make all the calculations,” Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment Minister Rafaela Fernandez told Lusa.
The minister added that in terms of the environment and the burnt area, “specific data […]with evidence” in a report to be made public.
In addition, he added, the Madeira Institute of Forestry and Nature Conservation will hold another meeting with journalists to clarify the situation regarding the island’s forest cover, “indicating the spaces and what is recommended in the planning plans for what will be the next stage of recovery after the fires.”
“There is a lot of confusion, even in the concepts, about what the Laurissilva forest is and what it is not,” he stressed, adding that this work is being prepared “away from what are guesses that at the moment do not help at all.”
The rural fire on the island of Madeira broke out on August 14 in the mountains of the municipality of Ribeira Brava in the district of Serra de Água and gradually spread to the municipalities of Câmara de Lobos, Ponta do Sol and Santana.
On Tuesday, 13 days later, the regional civil protection service reported that the fire was “completely extinguished.”
According to the European Forest Fire Information System, the area of burnt areas exceeds 5,104 hectares.
According to Rafaela Fernandez, the first step was to ensure the welfare of the animals by taking them and providing them with food, namely hay for cattle and feed paste for bees in the affected areas. Some animals were moved to pastures where they could feed directly.
According to data collected by the Secretariat, only chickens and sheep were lost in the fire in Serra de Agua, and the regional government (PSD) will hand over the animals to the affected producers.
The regional secretary also assured that “the treated and processed agricultural lands did not burn.”
“The surrounding area, where there was bush, was burned,” and a “thorough investigation” is being carried out, particularly in Ponta do Sol.
Rafaela Fernandez believed that this distinction was crucial “to determine the type of support, since it is one thing to recover what was a productive asset and has disappeared, and another to take advantage of this motivation from owners who did not cultivate the land to start agricultural projects.”
The person in charge also pointed out that chestnut production in Curral das Freiras (Câmara de Lobos municipality) had been affected, especially trees that had already been identified for renewal, as well as part of the cherry trees in Jardim da Serra, in the same municipality, in areas that were supposed to be renewed, although “most of the production was maintained”,
In the agricultural sector, there will be “two types of support”, one for “restoring what was, but above all, it is mainly a requirement for owners and those who use the land to renew agricultural areas”, he explained.
On the other hand, a government official stressed the importance of people registering their properties to speed up the provision of support.
According to Rafaela Fernandez, the provision of assistance depends on how quickly people submit the necessary documentation.
Due to the difficulty of identifying some landowners, the regional government of Madeira “is considering the possibility of expropriating public services for some areas that are crucial for the intervention of combat resources and must be in conditions of no bush throughout the territory” and, since “they are of a fundamental and strategic nature, they must be under public control,” he added.
As the fire raged, authorities ordered nearly 200 people to leave their homes as a precaution and set up community shelters, but many residents returned home.
Firefighting efforts were hampered by wind and high temperatures, but there were no reports of injuries or destruction of homes or important public infrastructure, according to the regional government, although some small-scale agricultural production and forested areas were damaged.
The Judicial Police are investigating the cause of the fire, but the President of the Executive Power of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, said it was arson.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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