Greenpeace has warned that rural abandonment, lack of forest management, and insufficient European decarbonisation targets are exacerbating fires in Portugal and Spain, which are increasingly facing the extreme effects of the climate crisis.
“The most important thing is forest management and land management. What we are experiencing in these two countries is rural abandonment, the abandonment of the countryside and the people who live in it,” Greenpeace’s executive director for Spain and Portugal told Lusa during the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), which began on Monday in the Amazonian city of Belém.
Eva Saldaña emphasised the need to invest in rural development, to provide the people who live in the territory with services and resources, “so that they are better prepared to prevent fires and then act when they happen”.
The real guardians of the forests are “the people who live in the territory, the local communities, the people involved in agriculture and livestock farming,” she noted.
From the Amazon to the Iberian Peninsula, Greenpeace’s message is clear: those who live in the territory are the ones who protect the forest.
“And to do that, we need to provide them with resources, funding and, of course, ensure services so that more people can live in these territories,” she emphasised.
The Greenpeace official believes that Portugal and Spain are not keeping pace with the demands of the scientific community and accuses Europe of a lack of ambition in its decarbonisation targets and of delaying climate action.
“Portugal and Spain are not keeping pace with the international scientific community. Europe isn’t doing it either and is stuck in a state of great immobility,” she said, considering that the two countries can do much more, and ambition must be at the centre of the discussion.
Eva Saldaña recalled that the European Union has set a target of a 90% reduction in emissions compared to 1990 by 2035, “when it should already be very close to 100%”.
Mainland Portugal was affected this summer by large-scale rural and forest fires in the North and Centre regions.
The fires caused four deaths, including a firefighter, and several injuries, and totally or partially destroyed first and second homes, as well as agricultural and livestock holdings and forests.
This year is the third-worst ever in terms of area burnt up to August 31, with 254,000 hectares, according to the Integrated Rural Fire Management System.
In Spain, the fires caused four deaths and burnt more than 350,000 hectares.
Carbon emissions in Europe linked to this summer’s forest fires, especially in Portugal and Spain, are already the highest in 23 years of records, the European Earth observation service Copernicus said on September 18.
Since the beginning of the year, forest fires in Europe have released 12.9 megatonnes of carbon, while the previous records were set in 2003 and 2017, with 11.4 megatonnes emitted into the atmosphere.
Source: Lusa
