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More than 61,000 hectares of Portugal’s forest has been destroyed by wildfires since the beginning of the year — 40,000 hectares in August alone. August 25 was the year’s worst day, with 362 separate fires reported across the country, writes Público.
Battling the blazes has already cost the lives of four firefighters and €74m – almost four times the €20m spent annually on forest fire prevention, adds the daily. It continues –
[what] is required is a mammoth task involving the reconstruction of forest services left emaciated by the negligence of successive governments, the development of a forest register to identify who owns about a third of forest land, and a tax policy that heavily penalises those who leaves forest areas abandoned.
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