Portugal has joined nearly 50 countries in a global pledge to tackle devastating forest fires through prevention, cooperation and a new focus on protecting nature before disaster strikes.
“We are committed to consolidating a strategy that combines environmental conservation and climate resilience, by valuing the services of forest ecosystems, promoting biodiversity and preventing fires,” said Portugal’s Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, on Thursday at the leaders’ summit of the COP30 climate conference, taking place in Belém, in the Brazilian Amazon.
“Our forest ecosystems present a series of challenges, namely the risk of fire, which forces us to act,” he said.
Under the new commitment – titled Call to Action on Integrated Fire Management and Forest Fire Resilience – the 49 signatories recognise that wildfires are one of the most dramatic consequences of climate change and a challenge “no country can face alone.”
The agreement calls for a major shift from reactive firefighting to proactive prevention, such as creating firebreaks and clearing forests regularly to prevent fires from breaking out, rather than just buying aircraft to put them out. The countries also agreed to strengthen international coordination to share resources, technology and expertise, and to move faster in responding to fires that cross borders.
The initiative also includes support for local and indigenous communities, as well as measures to fight environmental crime.
Montenegro is in Belém for a two-day visit to the Climate Summit, which brings together representatives from 143 nations, though notably without the leaders of the world’s biggest polluters: China, the United States and India.
Among the countries supporting the appeal are Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Greece, Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, Morocco, Mexico, Panama, the Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Uruguay, South Korea, North Korea and Spain.
