The environmental organization GEOTA today defended the creation of an independent technical commission to evaluate the causes of the fire on the island of Madeira and an urgent action plan to stabilize the soil before the first rains.
Speaking to Lusa, Miguel Jerónimo, coordinator of some reforestation projects at GEOTA (Spatial Planning and Environment Study Group), began by lamenting the “gigantic environmental liability” that was lost following the fire that broke out on the island of Madeira on August 14.
Data from the European Forest Fire Information System indicate that 5,104 hectares of area have been burned.
“We have already seen in the media that, because no human lives were lost and no houses or homes burned down, this is a success. Five thousand hectares burned down. This is a huge environmental liability and cannot be seen as a success,” he stressed.
For the environmentalist, the path now involves adopting immediate and medium- to long-term measures, the most urgent of which are the creation of an independent technical committee to assess the causes and operational failures and the development of a plan to stabilize the soil, to occur before the first rains.
“Where there was forest, there is no forest at the moment. Therefore, what held the soil together was the vegetation. Everyone knows that on the island of Madeira we are talking about very steep slopes. When the first rains arrive, what will happen are phenomena similar to those we saw in 2022 in Serra da Estrela. Immediately after that fire, there were torrential rains, floods, contamination of water lines with ash and the dragging of burnt material”, he described.
Other measures advocated by Miguel Jerónimo, for the medium/long term, are the enhancement and natural regeneration of the Laurissilva forest and the reconversion of the island’s non-native forest, composed essentially of pine, eucalyptus and acacia trees.
“We need a landscape that is more adapted to what these fire dangers may be and, therefore, that can mitigate and serve as an ally in reducing fire risk,” he pointed out.
According to the environmentalist from GEOTA, who coordinates reforestation projects in Serra da Estrela, in the Leira pine forest and in the Algarve mountains of Monchique, the island of Madeira “has all the natural conditions for the reforestation process to be a success”.
As a final note, Miguel Jerónimo challenged the Regional Government to integrate the National Plan for Integrated Management of Rural Fires, considering that this would contribute to improving operational capacity and preventing fires of this size.
“It was very important that the Regional Government and the opposition parties viewed integration in this type of process in a positive light and not as interference in the region’s autonomy. I think that this would be a positive contribution,” he said.