Institutional and political setting
Catastrophic forest fires in 2003 and 2005 gave rise to a growing of national and international concern about environmental degradation and consequent socio-economic poverty. Mação municipality has benefited from the European Union Solidarity Fund and from some financial assistance provided by the Swiss government. In addition, the AFN - Autoridade Florestal Nacional (National Authority to Forest) has put a significant effort into reforestation of burned areas. This has been achieved with the help of the AGRIS programme (partly funded by the European Union), the Fundo Florestal Permanente (Permanent Forest Fund) and the Municipal Project of Defence against Forest Fires, financed by the Portuguese government.
Interest in reforestation is not a recent phenomenon. For example, the Forestry Action Plan (1986-1993), the Forestry Development Plan (1994-98) and the EEC 2080/92 regulation all promoted forestry. Some measures were taken to reduce forest fire risk, but the probability of forest fires remains high. Nevertheless, the afforestation ethos remains, although it does not take account of predictions of climatic change involving the increased likelihood of drought and therefore of fires. Furthermore, these efforts are confined to the forestry sector, involving AFN (where the Portuguese UNCCD focal point is based) and the Municipality of Mação. Other sectors have been excluded from the solution. This is an area where DESIRE can play an important and decisive role, by measuring the impact of alternative land management practices and of a higher diversification of economic activities, taking into account the global change consequences on the soil and ecosystem degradation, namely the climatic change and socio-economic change implications.
The Basis-Law of Forest Policy (Law n.º 33/96 of August, 17) identifies the national aims to the forest policy. Concerning this law and also the national reality, it was developed in 1998 the Plan to Sustainable Development of the Portuguese Forest. This plan aims to organize the forest functions and also to answer to major international issues about forest. The National Strategy to the Forests appears in 2006, aiming to promote the value of forest goods and services.
The organization of forest is made at the regional level through the PROFs - Planos Regionais de Ordenamento Florestal (Regional Plans for Forestry Management and Planning) and at the individual land ownership scale with the PGF - Planos de Gestão Florestal (Plans for Forestry Management), regulated by the Decree-Law n.º 204/99 of June, 9. In 2005, it was created a new legal figure to forestry management the ZIF - Zonas de Intervenção Florestal (Forestry Intervention Areas) was created with the aim to promote and manage the forest areas in sustainable way, to coordinate the forest areas protection, to reduce the conditions to fires, to coordinate the forest areas recovering after fire and to integrate the roles of the several entities.
In terms of forest protection against fires, the National System to Prevent and Protect Forest against Fires (Decree-law n.º 156/2004 of June,30) is approved in 2004, which defines the measures and actions to prevent, combat and recover forest after fires. In 2006 is approved the National Plan to Forest Defence against Fires, which defines as its strategic aims: i) an increase in the resilience of the land against fires; ii) reduction of fire occurrence; iii) the improvement of fire-fighting techniques; iv) improved post-fire recovery of ecosystems; v) adoption of an organic and functional structure to implement the plan. At the local level, there is also a Municipal Plan to Defend Forest against Fires.
