The Agency for the Integrated Management of Rural Fires (AGIF) clarified today that it does not call into question “the very valid work” of municipalities and firefighters in protecting against forest fires, but defended a revision in the financing legislation by the municipalities.
In a statement, the AGIF considers it important "a review of the funding legislation for municipalities and firefighters' associations, in order to encourage forest planning and preventive measures against forest fires, in addition to the rules currently in force".
The president of the agency, Tiago Oliveira, was heard on Thursday at the parliamentary committee on Agriculture and Fisheries, regarding the activities report of the 2022 Integrated Management System for Rural Fires.
According to the note, “at no point” during his intervention in the Assembly of the Republic did the representative intend to “call into question the very valuable work that has been carried out by municipalities and firefighters in protecting against forest fires, which has been , certainly, a valuable contribution to the good results that Portugal has been presenting in this matter”.
On the occasion, it can be read, Tiago Oliveira considered that important steps have been taken in the system of preventing and combating forest fires, “but now it is essential to change the paradigm and focus on the preventive component”.
The representative, underlines the AGIF, stated that it would be desirable “to structure the support based on performance indicators and according to pre-defined objectives in program contracts, which also reflect, in addition to aspects related to combat, indicators related to prevention , rewarding the reduction in the number of ignitions, the reduction of the burned area, fuel management and support to the population”.
In the parliamentary committee, Tiago Oliveira said that "there are municipalities spending half a million euros, a barbarity of money, on firefighters, when they do not spend money managing the forest", statements that generated discontent among municipalities.
This was the case of the Intermunicipal Community of the Region of Coimbra, which on Friday urged the president of the agency not to “meddle in matters of local power”.
A Intermunicipal Community of the Algarve (AMAL) asked, in turn, the resignation of the president of AGIF, while the presidents of the 11 municipalities of the Intermunicipal Community of Lezíria do Tejo expressed indignation at his statements.
The National Association of Portuguese Municipalities also repudiated the words of Tiago Oliveira.
The National Association of Professional Firefighters and the National Union of Professional Firefighters accused the president of AGIF of “being too much in the system”.
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