The Government will make available 20,5 million euros, by 2039, to implement the Program for the Reorganization and Management of the Landscape of the Serras de Monchique and Silves (PRGPSMS), which provides for actions to prevent fire and «promote a new economy”, among others.
This plan, which focuses on a territory that was devastated by the great fire of 2018, which lasted more than a week and reached Monchique, Silves and Portimão, it was approved today by the Council of Ministers, as part of a package of diplomas linked to the forest.
«From the PRGPSMS come proposals for the promotion of a new economy, which values natural capital and the suitability of soils, which promotes fire resilience and ensures higher yields, supporting crop conversion and remunerating ecosystem services insufficiently valued by markets”, reads the resolution of the Council of Ministers.
According to the Government, the document sets out three priority actions: “Enhancement of Water Lines and Fuel Management Mosaics”; “Rehabilitation of the Terraced System”; and “Valuation of Forest Biomass Remains”.
The measure linked to water lines and fuel management contemplates «the creation of riparian galleries associated with water lines and the creation of fire opening points, through the promotion of mosaics of parcels related to agricultural and silvopastoral uses, which promote discontinuities in arboreal and shrubby patches, increase resilience and facilitate the fight against rural fires».
With regard to the “Rehabilitation of the Terraced System”, it intends to contribute “to the conservation of soil and water and to local agricultural production, the maintenance of discontinuities in the landscape and the promotion of local and regional identity”.
On the other hand, the valorization of forest biomass is foreseen, «which aims to use woody material from cuttings, thinning and deforestation, for energy production or for covering and integration in the soil, contributing to the protection against erosion, for the production of living soil and for carbon sequestration'.
The Government also stressed that the plan was drawn up "in light of the guidelines of the National Program for Spatial Planning Policy (PNPOT), given the urgent need to convert the landscape into territories with high fire hazards."
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