Multiple (not so wild) fires have spread throughout in the Northern region of Portugal. The Minho region, including Portugal’s only National Park, PNPG, have been particularly impacted. While many scorched areas are mainly agricultural eucalyptus and pine trees, patches of old forests and high altitude vegetation, with their precious autochthonous species, have been devastated.
The causes of these fires are well-known but badly fought. Portugal has 10x the number of fires per inhabitant than other Mediterranean (and similar weather) countries. It is assumed than over 90% of fires are of human causes: from the negligent tossing the cigarette to the madman pyromaniac (as it was in Madeira Island). However, somewhere in the middle, there is a crazy economical loop that feeds on fires as these feed on dried grasses. Poor politics (or bad politicians) have their consequences: ineffective legislation, insufficient forest surveillance, poor investigation resources and stalled justice. All these serve as basis for lot of “business as usual” from the wood, paper and even farming industry. Unlike any other country, even the Portuguese Air Force has been set aside and somewhat “grounded”, in favour of privatized air-fighting means. True Portuguese business innovation right there. A context only permitted by a willful ignorance from an entire nation, only disrupted by the typical August journalistic coverage of wildfires. Here, the gain of few is the economic loss of an entire nation; spreading from burnt property, to the destruction of sustainable means of those that live directly from the land, and even from all Nature related touristic activities. Oh, and ultimately, the sheer loss of life.
While trying to have some form of vacations in the Western region of PNPG, I found a surviving patch of old wood in the middle of a fire that now extends to 5000ha. The smoke curtain that falls upon it hints how deeply its surroundings have become scorched earth. As the photograph is two days old, and the fire still remains active as today, the saddest part is… I don’t even know if this small forest still remains alive.
Mezio, PNPG, Portugal
2016, August
