Maria da Graça Carvalho emphasized that protected areas such as Alvão, affected by rural fires this summer, will benefit from specific three-year program contracts with measures to be implemented on the ground, starting with emergency works.
The fire that began on August 2 in Sirarelhos, Vila Real, and spread to Mondim de Basto, in the same district, left a scorched trail in the Alvão mountains.
“Here in Alvão it is particularly sad,” the minister stated during a visit to the mountains, which includes the Alvão Natural Park (PNA), noting, however, that it is “necessary to look to the future.”
The fire destroyed pastures, pine forests, and deciduous woodlands, burning 1,600 hectares of the 7,238-hectare protected area, also affecting the area of the blue butterfly, an endangered species with colonies in Alvão.
Maria da Graça Carvalho indicated that the park is among those that suffered “the greatest damage to significant environmental values,” necessitating “special care for Alvão.”
“It’s a small park but with great environmental wealth and, unfortunately, it was not possible to protect that wealth, which isn’t present throughout the entire park but is concentrated in specific areas, some of which burned,” she remarked.
The minister explained that specific plans will be devised for each park and each species.
In some cases, natural regeneration might occur, but monitoring will need to be conducted.
In the case of the blue butterfly, it is necessary to monitor the population to understand the real impact of the fire, which is “not immediate.”
This species is very fragile, with low tolerance to variations in the ecosystem, requiring specific ecological conditions, including its host plant, the gentian, where it lays eggs, and the presence of the ‘myrmica’ ant that feeds it within its nest during its final larval stages.
“Monitoring is being conducted to assess the fire’s impact on various species,” the minister stated.
Earlier in the day, at the Peneda-Gerês National Park (PNPG), the minister had announced the publication of an ordinance aimed at ecosystem recovery, following the decree-law that already established compensation for the loss of income for companies and farmers.
“At the Ministry of Environment and Energy, we focused our ordinance on the entire network of protected areas heavily impacted by the fires. For each of these areas, our proposal involves a program contract listing what needs to be done, starting with major emergency works,” she emphasized.
Some of these interventions, she advanced, are already being carried out by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) and the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), particularly regarding the retention of ash to prevent water contamination or soil retention to avoid landslides.
“Thus, listing all the necessary works, repairing paths and bridges, signage, followed by a second part with more structural nature restoration measures, re-naturalization,” she added.
Natural restoration monitoring will be conducted, there will be new plantings, and buffer zones will be created with mixed tree types.
“It is noticeable in various places I’ve visited that when there is a mixture of trees with higher humidity, such as oak groves, they served as buffers against the fire,” she highlighted.
