Portugal, wildfires and the eucalyptus curse

No one would guess that in 2017 more than 50,000 hectares burned in the hills between Pedrogrão Grande and Castanheira de Pera, in central Portugal. The vegetation is luxuriant again and a mantle of eucalyptus globulus (also known as blue gum) covers much of the mountainous landscape. These are plantations rather than forests, and its canopy already reaches a height of 10 or 15 metres. Although the trees are not yet ready to be harvested for the pulp industry, there is plenty of human activity going on.

“At the moment we are mainly processing pine wood, which we cut and export. This type of wood is used for pallets, furniture, biomass and fuel such as pellets. Cutting the eucalyptus is still about three years away”, says Sandra Carvalho, a small businesswoman and owner of one of the main sawmills in the area. In 2017, her family’s mill was completely destroyed.

Six years on, Sandra is running from one eucalyptus plot to the next to check on her workers’ progress in clearing the dense undergrowth generated by this plant, which is native to Australia but is now the primary tree species in Portugal. Eucalyptus covers 845,000 hectares in the Iberian countryside, or 26 percent of forests. Technically these are cultivations that feed the paper and cellulose sectors, with eucalyptus grown exclusively for pulp, which is used to make various paper products.

The species burns particularly quickly in fires, a factor that continues to generate debate among experts about its dangerousness.

Monoculture and the paper business

Sandra’s company provides its forest-pruning service through the association Biond, which works with the main players of the large Portuguese pulp industry. The group is financed by the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility and the NextGenerationEU programme. One of Biond’s missions is the upkeep of this area of 1,400 hectares until 2025: “Currently, about 250 hectares of eucalyptus plantations have been pruned. We cut through the dense, highly flammable undergrowth that does not allow easy access to the forest in case of fire,” explains Sandra.

This preemptive maintenance is often neglected in Europe’s forests, especially in rural areas undergoing depopulation. It serves to protect against large accumulations of tinder that fuels fires.

In the case of the Pedrogrão Grande fire of 2017, many blamed the tragedy on a combination of factors: extensive eucalyptus monoculture; the accumulation of tinder between trees due to insufficient upkeep; and increasingly dry weather in the summer months. The explosive combination resulted in 66 deaths and hundreds of injuries.