Only two of Portugal Councils will manage to have cleared scrub from public land as well as ensuring that private landowners comply with the new scrub cleaning laws by the end of May deadline.Of the 189 municipal areas at ‘high fire risk’ - according to the ICNF - only 13 Councils will have cleared their public land by the end of the month. Not one of these Councils is in the Algarve but Silves will be close.
If you live in Arronches, Estremoz, Monção, Óbidos, Odemira, Paredes de Coura, Resende, Sabrosa, Seia, Tomar, Trofa, Valongo or Vila de Rei, your Councils at least have cleared their own land but only two of them, Arronches and Óbidos, are confident that local landowners also will cleaned their scrubland before the deadline.
As of June 1, the country enters this year’s first stage 'fire risk' period without the new law having been adhered to. Most Councils say they at least have got half the job done - sometimes after years of neglect.
Rosa Palma, the Mayor of Silves, did not confirm that all her Council land would be cleaned in time but said that, "if things go well," we can reach 100%.
"I have been aware that we are a regional exception, we have been cleaning our forests systematically for four years and have signed a protocol with the army.
Faced with the poor adherence to critically important new laws designed to make the country safer, the Ministry of Internal Administration stated that the deadline for cleaning the land is not yet exhausted and that more Councils can achieve the objective.
Eduardo Cabrita's office repeats the minister's statement that, "the priority given to fire prevention has never taken this dimension" and "the government's goal is not to impose fines, it's to clean up."
Many mayors, however, say that the targets issued by the government simply were impossible to meet.
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