Fuel and biomass management projects, as well as the creation of Integrated Landscape Management Areas (AIGP), are already underway in the Western Algarve, to create mechanisms to reduce serious rural fires, reduce the area burned and save lives.
The Barlavento Algarve, Alto Tâmega and Coimbra were the areas chosen to host three pilot projects that aim to «prevent the loss of human lives in rural fires, reduce the percentage of fires exceeding 500 hectares and ensure that the burned area accumulated in the decade 2020-2030 does not exceed 660 thousand hectares», according to Associação Natureza Portugal|World Wide Fund (ANP|WWF), one of the partner entities of this project funded by the European Commission and coordinated by the Agency for the Integrated Management of Rural Fires (AGIF) .
Currently, the Algarve pilot project «has an overall rate of execution of 32%, highlighting the Integrated Landscape Management Areas, but also the recovery of burned areas, the use of fire, the generation of energy based on biomass» and fuel management.
“In fuel management, the focus is on working with herders and livestock producers and on promoting controlled fire,” according to the association.
Work is also being carried out at the level of rural agglomerations and the surroundings of built-up areas.
Here, «the focus is directed towards the analysis of risk and prioritization of interventions, as well as the use of previous initiatives in the territory to enhance the urban-rural interface, through the interaction between the village condominium areas and the measures of the Programs Safe Village, Safe People».
The “potential for installing biomass boilers” is also being assessed, with a view to energy production.
This is because, according to the ANP, through the Algarve pilot project it is also intended to «leverage activities that more directly respond to the main vulnerabilities of the territory».
«For this reason, it was chosen to direct efforts to strengthen governance and inter-entity work, support initiatives that increase value for those who work in rural areas, and encourage the protection of the landscape and agglomerates through the reduction of biomass - always bearing in mind present the synergies between the different projects», says the association.
The installation of three Integrated Landscape Management Areas (AIGP) in Silves, namely those in Vale de Odelouca, Nova Serra and Falacho Enxerim, which are «pioneers in the country in finalizing the responsibilities of the municipality and transferring the process to the management entity set up », is another ongoing measure.
“The first controlled fire course in the Algarve region was also carried out and the dynamization of controlled fire with the creation of mosaics, which will change the behavior of fire in critical areas”.
The training, for the first time in the Algarve, of certified controlled fire technicians, «will allow the implementation of controlled fire plans at the scale of the region».
To bring the different pilot projects to fruition, a team of specialists was created to support the implementation of the National Action Program (PNA), integrated in the National Plan for the Integrated Management of Rural Fires 20-30, in the territories covered.
«The three pilot areas were identified as representative of other areas of the country, depending on the rural fire risk, their forest, social and economic characteristics. In the pilot areas, local entities (…) are working together on the actions they identified as being critical for the reduction of serious rural fires», described the ANP|WWF.
Municipalities, Intermunicipal Communities, the Institute for Nature and Forest Conservation, the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority and the GNR are some of the entities involved.
“The main challenge is to implement effectively collaborative methodologies, following a coordinated and integrated approach to landscape and fire management”, added the association.
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