“Recent changes in institutional responsibilities have resulted in overlapping strategies for fire prevention. Following the election of a new Government in 2024, forest prevention responsibilities were transferred exclusively to the Ministry of Agriculture, which has since taken over supervision of AGIF [Agency for the Integrated Management of Rural Fires],” states the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in its report “Towards Integrated Rural Fire Management in Portugal,” accessed by Lusa.
The preliminary conclusions of this EU-funded project, conducted in collaboration with AGIF and presented today by OECD technicians to Portuguese deputies, indicate that with these changes, the country “risks compromising strategic clarity and coherence in the future.”
Among the changes is the transfer of AGIF to the Ministry of Agriculture – during the socialist governance AGIF was overseen by the Prime Minister – and the development of the Forest Intervention Plan, which the OECD considers to have complementary but “sometimes overlapping” actions.
The Forest Intervention Plan, encompassing measures until 2050, aims to “promote a more sustainable and resilient forest, less vulnerable to threats and climatic risks, while improving the production of goods and services for Portugal.”
Experts from the organization argue that, “although the forest intervention plan places greater emphasis on the economic value of forests and the strengthening of local capacity for fuel management, for which it proposes new or complementary actions, it often overlaps with the PNA,” the National Action Plan for Rural Fire Management, which has a timeframe of 2020-2030.
As an example, the OECD notes that the PNA already seeks to address land abandonment, promoting rural economic value through initiatives such as agroforestry, sustainable forest management, the development of sustainable financing models for biomass energy production, and a better evaluation and remuneration of ecosystem services provided by landowners.
“These overlaps can create confusion among stakeholders and potentially hinder the implementation of the PNA. The Forest Intervention Plan includes an estimated budget for each goal, covering the period from 2025 to 2050, along with identified funding sources. These sources are the same ones intended for the implementation of the PNA for the period from 2020 to 2030,” the document states.
The OECD emphasizes that “it is still unclear whether the projects of the two programs will compete for the same financing sources in the future” and that the various actions of the Forest Intervention Plan reflect the PNA projects with small adjustments or improvements, making it unclear which projects entities should prioritize.”
According to the document, Portugal is one of the countries most prone to forest fires in Europe, and “large fires in sparsely populated areas are responsible for most of the burned area,” demonstrating how socio-economic changes, land abandonment, and forest degradation have increased the risk.
“The fires of 2024 and 2025 demonstrate that significant challenges still exist in the pursuit of the paradigm shift established with the introduction of the Integrated Rural Fire Management System,” the document warns.
The OECD also recalls that in 2024, forest fires caused the third largest burned area since 2014, and the summer of 2025 again recorded fires of exceptional dimensions, surpassing the burned area of the fires that triggered reforms in Portugal in 2017.
