There are three reasons why Portugal is the hottest European country
Data from all organizations indicate the same: Portugal is the country that burns the most in the European Union. “We were the ones that burned the most in 2016, 2017 and 2018 – this year it seems strange, because there was that incident with many victims in Greece, and the incident in Sweden that was ended by bomb, but even so Portugal managed, with the fire of Monchique, to overcome these occurrences in areas”.
Paulo Pimenta de Castro, president of Acréscimo, professor, forestry engineer and author of “Portugal in Flames”, is not surprised by the data: for three years in a row we were the country that burned the most in the European Union. Still, it is believed that “we have been immensely lucky these last few years with the weather factor”. It cannot be remembered that fires depend on three factors: meteorology, occupation of the territory and behavior. “Now, in terms of behavior, our record is terrible, especially with the rate of burns and burns in the event of fires”. And so there is no doubt that “we have an exaggerated use of fire”.
On the day we spoke with Pimenta de Castro, Serra da Estrela burned once again. “And there are no eucalyptus trees.” This puts to rest the crude theory of monoculture, although the factor of occupation of the forest weighs heavily. “We have a weather condition that is easy for us in half, if we want to divide the country, in part”, he emphasizes. “But on the part of the lane we suffered a little that Spain is suffering.
“In this country, a large part of the burned area is the result of re-ignitions. And this is an opportunity that we do not have a fight against. That’s how it was in 2018 in Monchique, and possibly that’s what happened now in Serra da Estrela. arder”, considered the silvicultural engineer, author of the book “Portugal em Chamas”.
We see the risk of fire, from the European service, “we see that Portugal has the last days of the coastal area, analyzing it in half”, underlines the researcher, explaining that “we have maximum risk in the coastal area, but maximum risk only in the border area “. “In spite of everything, compared to Spain, we have had some luck here”, he considers. “But when we have hotter days, as it is in July, the behavior is the same or worse than what happens in Spain. And therefore, taking into account only the triangle of factors I speak of, we “benefit” from having 60 thousand hectares burning”, says the president of Acréscimo. “If we get another heat stroke, these numbers will automatically skyrocket.”
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Portugal was the country with the highest number of fires in 2020, according to the report on forest fires in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, prepared by the European Commission, with a burned area of 67,170 hectares.
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Spain second in number of fires in 2020, reaching 65,923 hectares of burned area. France followed, with 7,373 fires, but much less burned area: 17,077 hectares.
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North Macedonia recorded the lowest number of fires in the European Union in the year 2020. These fires resulted in only 68 hectares of burned area.
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Land registration activity
“Although trying to convey that the issue of registration is a measure of forest management policy, it is not. It is a measure of land use policy. And when a forest management measure, whatever it is, does not know who the your target audience, it is obvious that the risk of failure is high”, the professor. He recalls that in the case of agriculture “we had the European Commission, which forces us to do the parcelling, because it wanted to know who gave money to it. In the case of forests, we have this issue, of not knowing what belongs to whom. that by solving the cadastre, solving the problem of fires… or reducing their impact in Portugal, is also not true. Because this after another set of policies. heritage, what they do is what you see: abandon it”.
Helena also points out this condition: “90% of care is private, and never the territory of the territories that are intended to be identified as State property”. The biologist, in the area of Biology and Ecology at the Department of Life Sciences and Technology at the University of Coimbra, recalls the problem of several crucial points and concerns: what burns most, most land, we have most private; we keep the problem of undivided inheritance, and few countries thought to solve it.
“There are a number of aspects that are now much better to resolve a climate framework, more favorable and fires, when the territory is more abandoned, with no appreciation of the rural, in a place of excellence of brutal destruction that begins to have an impact on issues” .
The capacity of the Serralves Park in Porto, remembered in terms of the recovery of the current area that we are green in a complicated plan: “When the great productivity of soils, biomass also loses productivity. Our productivity of our ecosystems”, considered a former coordinator of the Mission Unit for the Enhancement of the Interior.
More bush, less forest
Another Portuguese singularity resides in the increase in the bush – and in the elevation of the forest area. “This leads to quality in the determination of the forest”, considers Helena, who still considers some positive initiatives that have been made. “The problem is they’re too slow. And they fire too fast.” She points to an example of the creation of a structure created for the protection fires that are very significant as communities, which was important as a structure created for the Pedrógãos, but it was important. Moreover, she was responsible for the program for this with territorial pride, and the person responsible for the program for this speaks with pride, and talks about BUBalcão Único and BUBalcão Único. Although this is also an example of the slowness of which she speaks: “It was started in 2017, and the north of the Tagus is not even 20% done yet”.
Looking at the rest of Europe, establishing terms of comparison. “There are countries that also have problems, although not so serious, such as France or Spain are introducing more drastic measures. Particularly with regard to the issue of abandoned property, which is transferred to the State”. Helena Freitas defends, in the first instance, promoting forest management, registration, and making the mission structure that has this task more robust. Another important issue is populations. Today, almost reconnecting to the rural world lives at war with the rural world, those who live in the urban environment go to rest on vacation to the beach, and those who live in the countryside already know that there is the catastrophe of fires at the door. This is the only way out, to work on forest management. Climate scenarios have graves that we can quickly climb.”
a new structure
Not that it is respected, a researcher can change: “The country also needs an assessment of availability to create what has to work a remarkable structure for the state that has a remarkable functioning. , but it is necessary that this more active technical-scientific knowledge , and more available”, he defends. Helena Freitas speaks of the creation “of an interface between the scientific community, capable of producing this information, and as entities that later implement it in the field”, while invoking the importance of community literature, “knowing how to react in the face of a fire .