“These pieces of equipment are mainly to be used in prevention, management, and planning—actions we can take beforehand to prevent what might happen. We must avoid tragedies. Avoiding incidents is the first and greatest motivation, and the primary objective. The second major goal is that when incidents cannot be avoided, they have lesser magnitude and shorter duration,” stated Luís Montenegro.
The Prime Minister was speaking in Baião, in the Porto district, during a ceremony where he delivered rural fire prevention and forest management equipment.
In his speech dedicated to the topic of fires, he made appeals to both present entities and the public. Montenegro mentioned that “what happened this year, 2025, was very illustrative” and emphasized the need to learn “lessons and conclusions from it.”
“We experienced many large fires, significant in both size and duration, and we faced numerous reignition phenomena. We need to find out how to avoid these as well. Therefore, I want to highlight that this is a path that has mobilized us,” he noted.
Amid mayors and officials from various civil protection departments, the Prime Minister spoke about “the war of prevention and the war after combat,” urging for “unity” and “solidarity” in a “collective service” mindset.
“We can only fight this war—because it is a war, the war of prevention and then the war after the combat—if each of us views this task as a task for all, without thinking solely of oneself, without thinking solely of how one’s department needs to be more valued,” he added.
Today, 57 tractors and 18 tracked machines were delivered to Municipal Councils and Intermunicipal Communities to support rural fire prevention and forest management operations.
This marks a second batch of equipment delivered as part of the action financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), with an investment intended for around 300 entities, including 18 CIM, 226 Municipalities, and 59 Forestry Producer Organizations.
The Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF) will receive 125 multidisciplinary vehicles valued at six million euros, to support controlled burning and suppression actions, forest management, and monitoring and surveillance of biotic and abiotic agents, among others.
The total investment is 50.1 million euros, anticipating the delivery of over 2,500 pieces of equipment.
