MAYOR OF MONTEMOR-O-VELHO
How do you assess the current state of the forests in the municipality of Montemor-o-Velho, and what are the main challenges you identify in their preservation and management?
Forest areas occupy about 39% of the municipality, that is, 8,963 ha. These are areas made up mainly of monoculture stands of pine and eucalyptus.
One of the main challenges to which the Municipality is committed is to stop the advance of illegal afforestation. On the other hand, it is also essential to raise awareness among owners who intend to carry out duly legalized afforestation of the importance of selecting native species adapted to the local soil and climatic conditions and adopting the appropriate management measures, which allow them to guarantee a greater profit sustainably, benefiting not only their stand, but the entire surrounding territory. Only in this way is it possible to create an orderly forest, capable of enhancing planning and active management of the landscape, increasing not only the resilience of the territory to rural fires, but also mobilizing resources and support investments that promote economic revitalization and sustainable local development.
What have been the main initiatives of the City Council to promote sustainable forest management practices?
The Municipality collaborates with the CIM (Intermunicipal Community of the Region of Coimbra) in different projects that aim to promote the structural transformation of the forestry sector. Within the scope of the TransForm Agenda, we participated in the execution project of the biomass collection park and its use in various municipal equipment. The “Natural Resin 21” project aims to modernize and make the production of Natural Resin more sustainable in Portugal. The consortium, led by CoLAB ForestWISE, is part of CIM, and the Municipality of Montemor-o-Velho collaborates. In the RESIST (Regions for climate change resilience through Innovation, Science and Technology) project, at the initiative of this Municipality, in partnership with Higher Education Institutions, we are studying the storage and drying conditions of chips, the product of forest cleaning activities, for future use in heating boilers.
Considering the effects of climate change, how do you see the future of forests in Montemor-o-Velho, and what measures do you consider essential to ensure their resilience?
There is a concern in the Municipality to ensure a better management of the rural landscape, considered as a whole, whether in terms of forestry or in terms of modern agriculture and the excellence of its products, since we have the best agricultural production soils in the country.
In the context of forest residues resulting from the cleaning of fuel management strips, we are promoting the establishment of a chip treatment park, to be used as an energy source in our sports facilities (swimming pool), thus promoting the circular economy in municipal infrastructures.
More than anything, the key point is to fix the population and create economic value in rural soil, which is often forgotten in rural development policies.
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