Agência para a Gestão Integrada de Fogos Rurais, I.P.
Sumário: Protecting Portugal and its forests from severe rural wildfires is in line with the mandate to protect people and property and to support the rural development, by ensuring that ecosystems are adequately maintained. To fulfill this mission an integrated plan for rural fire management has been established.
Forested areas of Portugal (about 36% of land area) are endangered by the outbreak of rural wildfires, destroying large areas of forest stands every year. Growing wildfire risk in Portugal results from the interplay of several factors, including changing land-use and management practices, changing vegetation cover, as well as climate change (OECD, 2023). It poses a big challenge for the future, asking for solutions that integrate human, economic and ecological factors into risk analysis and governance mechanisms.
The severe 2017 rural fires affected citizens and natural and built heritage, with dramatic consequences never before observed in Portugal or any other western Europe or Mediterranean country at the time. The discussions held after 2017 resulted in an agreement on the systemic weaknesses identified in the national wildfire management system by the Independent Technical Committee (ITC). Some of the identified weaknesses were deep-rooted and known, such as the lack of prevention or failure to integrate knowledge with management operations.
The engagement and commitment of all stakeholders – not only public entities but also, in particular, the private entities who own the majority of the Portuguese territory – was extremely complex. It was thus imperative to establish an integrated plan that included a strategy and action plan, with the purpose of making severe rural fires in Portugal a rare event. Such an endeavour required, as proposed by the ITC, the creation of an overarching coordinating body, for a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach, hence the creation of a dedicated agency in 2019.
This challenge was firstly took upon in 2017 by the Task Force for the creation of the Integrated Rural Fire Management System (IRFMS), and the preparation of the National Plan for Integrated Rural Fire Management (NPIRFM). This is a strategic plan that establishes an overarching framework for wildfire risk management in Portugal. The plan marks a structural change for rural prevention and suppression. The Agency for Integrated Rural Fire Management (AGIF) is currently responsible for planning, strategic coordination and evaluation of the IRFMS.