The upper part is indisputable and coincides with common sense. When there are wildfires, most of the burned area is brush and grassland. The accounts were sent to the Observer by Celpa, the Association of the Paper Industry, which claims to have crossed official data from the European Forest Fire Information System with the COS (Cartography of Land Occupation) of 2018. Maritime pine appears in second place and, in third, the eucalyptus.
Thus, forests and grasslands account for almost half of the area burned, representing 42.4% of the total. Pinus pinaster and eucalyptus are almost tied with 17% and 14.8%, respectively. Also according to the accounts of Celpa -which defends the increase in eucalyptus plantations, essential for the paper industry, as a way of fighting fires- there were eight events, according to European data, with more than 1,000 hectares burned: Leiria (3,691 hectares) , Carrazeda de Ansiães (3,389), Ourém (2,969), Estarreja/Albergaria-a-Velha (2,747), Vila Pouca de Aguiar/Murça (2,415), Chaves (2,371), Pombal (2,187) and Amarante/Baião (1,422) .
These data are released three days after forest owners and pulp industries requested eucalyptus plantations in scrub areas as a way to combat forest fires. In addition, they argue that the increase in the area of eucalyptus and other fast-growing tree species in abandoned bushes will develop the sector. “The area should be increased and not reduced,” defended Luís Damas, president of the National Federation of Forest Owners Associations (FNAPF), quoted by the Lusa agency.
The Paper Industry Association — Celpa defended the same. Francisco Gomes da Silva, general director of the company, argued that the fires occur mainly in areas of “general absence of forestry practices.”
The day before, Monday, several activists for Climate Justice demonstrated together with the Navigator Company and the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF), to denounce “the responsibilities of these institutions in the current situation of forest fires in Portugal”, reads the climax Communiqué.
Among various criticisms, they accuse the Government of António Costa of having failed to fulfill the promise made five years ago to plant “not one more eucalyptus”, to create the “forest registry” and to combat abandonment. The activists also point the finger at the large pulp companies — Navigator Company, Grupo Altri and the Celpa association — which bear “direct responsibility” for the forest fires, being the Government “connivance with the current situation”, through ICNF and the Portuguese Environment Agency.
Source: Observadora
