Portugal’s councils have rejected the new law that obliges them to clear-up forest areas if landowners do not carry out this vital fire prevention work.
The National Association of Portuguese Municipalities has requested an urgent meeting with the Government to hammer out a compromise.
“The Association can not accept that the State legislates with a view to putting the burden of resolving everything that has not been done in decades on the municipalities, which, according to the new law, have to do this task in less than three months," said Manuel Machado, the president of ANMP.
Government "must assume, as the municipalities have done in their budgets and without external support, once and for all their civil protection responsibilities ," said Machado, stressing that "the security of people and property is a sovereign function of the central State."
Manuel Machado, who also is mayor of Coimbra, said that despite successive requests from the Association, the State "has not carried out the registration of rustic property and for decades has not been able to insist that forests are cleaned by their owners.”
The State "has not even taken care of those forests under its own jurisdiction," but wants now "that municipalities, in less than three months, do what has not been done in decades" said Machado, saying the new law, "is not feasible."
The councils’ stance is that the priority should be on owners to clear their own forested land and not rely on local councils to do so at ratepayers’ expense, “It seems that the concern of the state was nothing more than to pass responsibilities to the municipalities,” and impose sanctions if the work is not done.
But the Association recognises that "the tragic forest fires recorded in recent months require the councils, the State and other entities with responsibilities in this area to adopt swift structural changes and measures that minimise the possibility of more fires and that the implementation of reforms of the system of civil protection and forest management, is essential.”
The municipalities "are aware of their responsibilities," take them on board and reaffirm their willingness and commitment to cooperate in solving problems, but the central State also must assume its responsibilities,” warns Machado.
Comments
Sad thing is, scores of families were burnt to death and nothing has been done to prevent it from happening THIS YEAR..
How many able bodied workers for how many hours would be required to clear a million hectares of forest, half of which is mountainous?
How much will they need to be paid, and how much will their machinery, billeting, clothing, and machinery cost?
It's all very well to pass a law, but without the funding you might as well pass a law prohibiting earthquakes and expect there to be no more seismic events.
Sure, goats will eat Acacia shoots if there's nothing tastier for them to eat; like crops and gardens. 1 million goats would do the job, but would require 50,000 full time goat herders living in the mountains with them to keep the pesky critters at the appointed task and out of the main roads and people's crops.
And humans would still have to go in to clear out the built up dead flammable material.
A lot of people sitting comfortably behind their keyboards have nice simple answers; get out there with a strimmer on your back for 8 hours, check how much forest you cleared, and then get back to us.
And remember, it all has to be done every few years.
well don't you know you need a goat cleaning licence for forests...they are available at your local camara and you can apply as soon as the application forms (must be notarised of course) have been designed and printed.
you must then wait for official clearance and the licence to be issued in lisboa and each goat must have gps tracker which will be linked to the specialist forestry police who will check and if any infringements are found ..if so there will be 2000 euro fines . Simples eh?