Owner indecision and rural fires in Portugal – Observer
You have free access to all the articles of the Observer for being our subscriber.
Being a rural owner is an economic, social and environmental responsibility that, in the overwhelming majority of situations, is not assumed.
What additional stimulus can the forest owner take?
From the ignition point identified as measures that allow minimizing risks (including the number of technical ignitions and their exclusive focuses), among which the territories stand out www.alvares-fogo.com):
- The need for a very significant increase in the management of these territories, and
- The adoption of a minimally diversified and economically viable rural/forest mosaic.
The rural, abandonment in Portugal, selected from rural, abandonment, 60 conjugated with the economies, making the years easier, and, stimulating reflections, a vision of the century not until the twentieth century of food and other goods. Regarding forest areas in smallholding regions, there is a dramatic lack of investment on the part of the overwhelming majority of landowners.
On the part with the agricultural sector, where the number of INE investments originates, with an important increase being exploited, from 1968 to 201, a reduction from 1968 to 201, a reduction in agricultural holdings with an increase in managed area, accompanied by the managed area of the managed growth area. markets. No forestry sector will have, in the same period and by virtue of inheritance, an increase in forest “explorations” (or rather owners) where there is a significant increase in the average area held by the owner, who is increasingly inactive.
If we accept the point of view of profitability, for an agricultural holding it is more profitable, that an agricultural holding is more profitable, in general, more frequent and more profitable), implies that, in order to obtain the same income, the forest owner must own/ explore an area that the agricultural. However, this is not the case in Portugal. For example, in the region of Alvares, in Pinhal Interior, a situation that will be very similar throughout the Portuguese rural interior, on average an owner has 5 rustic buildings (non-contiguous), with 0.6ha each, totaling about 3ha!!! With this framework, there is no possibility of economic profitability in the overwhelming majority of forestry “explorations”.
In the past, recognizing this problem, models of forest organization were created, tentatively grouped, such as Forest Intervention Zones that did not work operationally. More recently, since June 2020, through the Integrated Landscape Management Areas (AIGP) that will be implemented in the respective Integrated Landscape Management Operations (OIGP), the owner is “positively” encouraged to join, and support is distributed ( must-haves for the country, either by production / that will be produced to remain rural by reducing the risk of fire fighting) to manage and their fighting costs as properties by their properties for their years (205 years) and in a grouped way and tuned. Support should always and only be channeled to those who assume responsibility for producing (investing, managing, maintaining), the important thing for public institutions, the important role of facilitator.
In Alvares, of the approximately 3,000 owners, less than a dozen (or 0.4%) are “Forest Producers”, the rest: they do not know them as properties; they have no interest in knowing and/or exploring; or markets an idealization and its eventual possibilities that are currently unrealistic are inserted in the eventual profitability.
Furthermore, the typical owner (aged 60 and over), and his (many already 50 years old, descendants and up to 70 years old), who have very current occupations in life, are not available nor distant from the current 60 years to start, to assume any type of activity and forest management, even if grouped.
In Alvares, in the preparation of the OGP, we are creating alternatives for adhesion, positioning and commitment in which they can be created as producers and forestry producers:
- Who invests and manages the management and the beneficiaries of the operations (contracting of services and sales of production) grouped with scale;
- Whoever wants to invest again can choose to manage directly or hire management;
- Those who do not want to invest or manage can:
- Rent as properties (if there is a borrower);
- Start a sales process (if any);
- Transfer ownership to pooled management.
Anyway, even having a seemingly complete package of options, it is still not enough for the decision making is, without consequences for the decision maker, systematically postponed.
In a territory of 10,000ha (area of the city of Lisbon but with less than 800 inhabitants with more than 50% more than 60 years old), Alvares, with about 25% managed area, and 75% abandoned or not managed, the risk big fire again, with all the economic concerns for those who invested, very real.
In an urban condominium, whoex influences other condominium owners, etc.) is immediately responsible and liable, etc. And in the forest? an owner who abandoned his property, not managing, protecting his neighbors, an entire region and his own country? Would a solution that could serve as an incentive for the owner’s decision-making be an extra, in the annual IMI, for example, €30 to €40 per building not adhering to the AIGP/OIGP area?
Regardless of the species, as the managed ones register species by rural fire significantly lower than the unmanaged areas, or even negligible, in specific fire areas, even the fire projection areas!
And regarding the return to native species, possibly the native species that is most missed in these regions is the human being, with activity, initiative and responsibility! But what is behind and there is a lot technically, operationally and administratively this serious market failure: which persists for a long time and is not visible by the greater evidence that the climate solver will occur mainly in the frequency of the climatic conditions verified cabbages, vines, and garden grass…
Being a rural owner is an economic, social and environmental responsibility!
July 15, 2022