The damage to the productive fabric caused by the fire that ravaged Serra do Caldeirão in July was estimated at around 10 million euros and a line of support, with funds from the Proder Program, should be launched for its recovery. This support does not yet have a date to be launched, but the mayor of Tavira Jorge Botelho defends its urgency.
“We are talking about trees, beehives, irrigation engines, cultivators… everything that has been lost and needs to be recovered. We are waiting for the Proder line to open, so that producers who have already filled in the damage identification forms with the Ministry of Agriculture can apply and enjoy the 75 percent contribution”, said Jorge Botelho to Sul Informação, on the sidelines of a visit by mayors to areas affected by the fire in Tavira, on Saturday.
As for the launch date of the line, for Jorge Botelho «it was yesterday». “The fire burned everything, lives were destroyed, most of them very shaken in the coming years. Now, it is important that those who still have the strength and will to invest can count on this support», he explained.
Despite the high co-payment, there is a strong fear on the part of the municipalities in the affected municipalities that there are many victims of fires who are no longer able to recover their assets, given their advanced age. A consequence of the desertification of the interior and a concern that both Jorge Botelho and António Eusébio, mayor of São Brás de Alportel, have been expressing.
A factor that should not be as notorious in the Proder line for post-fire stabilization, which has already been opened and whose candidacy deadline ends on October 31st.
Here, the support will be used to «remove burned woods, stabilize slopes and try to prevent the contamination of groundwater» and will go largely through the Forest Intervention Zones (ZIF), in a work that is being led by the Association of Forestry Producers of Serra do Cauldron.
Our newspaper tried for over a month to obtain information from the regional director of Agriculture on the damages found in the report produced by the services of the Ministry of Agriculture, completed at the end of August, and on the deadlines for the launch of a line of support, but this clarification was never given due to Fernando Severino's alleged lack of availability.
Comments