A public agency specializing in forest fires proposed establishing biomass collection centers in high-risk municipalities
In recent months, the Institute for Integrated Management of Rural Fires (AGIF) proposed to the Ministry of Environment and Energy to establish biomass collection centers in municipalities with high forest density. The Ministry of Environment and Energy has not taken any decision on the matter, nor has it responded to our report on what it intends to do.
Wildfires penetrate the best survivals accumulated in forests: brushwood, small shrubs and saplings. With increasing agriculture and pastoralism, these materials have had time to evolve. After about ten years, they reach peak fire risk.
Using biomass to generate electricity can be a solution to turn the tide of economic profit for forestry producers. “Without biomass plants, without biomass collection parks, we will repeat the tragedies we have just experienced,” warns Clemente Pedro Nunes, professor of energy at the Instituto Superior Técnico.
The difficult profitability of biomass plants is pointed out by their opponents as an obstacle to their operation. “This solution has long been implemented in countries with high forest density such as the Baltic, Finland and Poland,” the expert replied.
Henrique Pereira dos Santos, a landscape architect dedicated to the study of rural fires, does not believe in this solution, but agrees that it is necessary to improve the economic sustainability of forest management. In his public interventions, he has secured direct incentives for landowners to guarantee the cleanliness of their forests. Pastoralism may be one of them, because “goats are very efficient traveling bio-power plants”.
Acuff declined to comment while they were on the ground with CNN Portugal.
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