Agência para a Gestão Integrada de Fogos Rurais, I.P.
Sumário: Rotary Foundation Global Grant for community economic development (GG2099432), through a Vocational Training Team (VTT), was aimed at improving Portugal’s community economic development in the following areas:
- Empowering communities to develop environmental and natural resource conservation skills for economic gain;
- Strengthening communities' economic resilience and adaptive capacity in response to environmental and climate-related hazards and natural disasters; and
- Developing and supporting community-based basic emergency preparedness services to improve economic resilience.
To meet the Rotary Foundation Global Grant objectives, forest fire management skills vocational training was conducted in prescribed burning for wildfire mitigation; wildfire prepare dness; wildfire predictive services; wildfire incident management; and guidance in establishing collaborative wildfire research, across multiple organizations and disciplines. This included training in the following forest fire topic areas:
- Fire behaviour analysis/predictive services;
- Prescribed fire, “burnout” and “backfire” (planning, execution and evaluation);
- Incident command structure and management;
- Incident tactical aerial coordination;
- Heavy plant for fire management;
- Strategic risk management
The vocational training for Eucalyptus Forest Fire Management in Portugal was delivered in three stages.
- Stage One (November 2022): four Australian experts visited Portugal and provided training in forest fire management, with a focus on prescribed burning and incident management structure and process.
- Stage Two (October 2023): six Portuguese practitioners from different entities across Portugal travelled to Western Australia where they received formal and practical training in prescribed burning and wildfire management.
- Stage Three (September 2024): three of the initial VTT team of experts from Australia returned to Portugal to assess Portugal’s progress since Stage 1 and to provide further support and refresher training in forest fire management. (Unfortunately, Dr. Kevin Tolhurst AM, the fourth member of the VTT, tragically and suddenly died, in October 2023, following a community presentation on forest fire management. His death had a significant impact on the Australian VTT, and his presence was sadly missed by the Portuguese who met him in 2022). Stage Three visit coincidentally coincided with several large and disastrous fires (seven deaths) burning in the north central area of Portugal. The occurrence of the wildfires had anobvious impact on the focus of the VTT team and on the availability of Portuguese officials.
Over the three VTT stages, the following methods were employed to impart knowledge and experience for Portugal’s forest fire management, particularly prescribed burning, to reduce the forest fire risk:
- Discussion groups with a range of operational practitioners in forest fire management and their policy colleagues across all entities with forest fire management responsibilities, as well as those entities with only wildfire suppression responsibilities;
- Video conferencing to interested parties within Portugal;
- Formal lectures at a tertiary institution;
- Recorded video training sessions for future use in tertiary forestry training courses;
- Hands-on field demonstrations for practitioners;
- Practical training for representatives of the Portugal entities, in the planning and implementation of prescribed burning;
- Incident management training, and observations of Australian Incident Management Teams during wildfire suppression;
- Presentations at two international conferences in Portugal on outputs from Rotary’s VTT;
- Briefings to the Australian Ambassador to Portugal,
- Media interviews for national newspapers and television news;
- Meetings with senior policy personnel responsible for land and forest fire management; and
- Political Ministerial discussions.
Rotary International and its financial support of the Vocational Training Team program (through a Rotary Foundation Global Grant) was highlighted at every opportunity and gratefully acknowledged by the Portuguese. Similarly, the depth of knowledge and experience within the VTT, across the multiple areas of forest fire management, was hugely appreciated.
Portugal’s complex rural landscape, with villages and cities interspersed within poorly managed forests has led to a significant rural fire problem. However, a Mediterranean climate, combined with high forest fuel levels and complex fire suppression governance arrangements are at the core of Portugal’s fire problem.
The key enablers to lowering Portugal’s forest fire risk are:
- A change in focus from fire suppression to risk management by all government entities, forest industry and community;
- Develop and implement landscape scale (cross-tenure) forest fire and fuel management strategies;
- Implement the Inter-Agency Incident Management System to achieve national coordination and cooperation between fire response agencies;
- Train and accredit all forest firefighting personnel to a single agreed standard;
- Develop a common understanding and implementation of forest firefighting strategies; and
- Require Planned Burning Technicians to maintain currency after accreditation (e.g., within a three-year period they must perform the role of Incident Controller for a planned burn).
Rotary’s Vocational Training Team has provided a catalyst for national changes which, if continued in the directions initiated through Portugal’s Integrated Rural Fire Management System (SGIFR), will bring about significant reduction in Portugal’s forest fire risk along with significant economic improvement at the national level.