Forests fires in Portugal

European taxpayers will fund new eucalyptus plantations in Portugal

The Portuguese government proposal. to submit to the European Commission for grant support from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to forests in Portugal, is intended to include public funding for investment in eucalyptus plantations on the pulp and paper industry.

In 2005, Portugal had the fifth largest area of ​​eucalyptus in the world, exceeding Australia - the origin country of this species. Between 2005 and 2010 this area has increased more than 26 thousand hectares.

Over the past 30 years, the area of ​​eucalyptus in Portugal increased tenfold (10x), however, the average yield per hectare registers, nowadays, values ​​already achieved in 1928. The focus of the pulp industry and paper sector has been developed in quantity, the mass area, not in quality, productivity per hectare.

Eucalyptus areas in Portugal are private, with significant impact on of Central and Northern regions, characterized by properties of less than 5 acres and owners have little or no negotiation power.

Besides that, the pulp and paper cluster is characterized by loose-win relationships, acting in imperfect competition, with the unilateral imposition of price forestry.

Organizations of forest owners have been characterized more by a performance of broadcasting public policy and less by defending the interests of their members. The analysis of the net entrepreneurial evolution income in forestry over the last decade is self-explanatory.

On the other hand, the authorities have refrained from making a systematic monitoring of markets, allowing industry free operation.

What are the risks then?

Forest fires in Portugal have assumed contours of national catastrophe. Their progress on the ground derives from the lack of proper forest management practices. This lack stems essentially from weak or no prospects for business in the forest. When revenue is uncertain, practices are reduced to a minimum expense on forested areas, as we'll see. 

Encourage the cultivation of more land without ensuring the viability of forestry business is a gamble of very high economic risk, but also social and environmental danger.

What we know of the past?

Despite of the billions spent in the last 27 years in Portugal, under the CAP in forestry investment, the economic situation of forestry deteriorated significantly, with accessories impacts at environmental and social levels.

Two examples of 27 years of the CAP support to forests in Portugal:

- According to information from the national forest authority, the forest species that most benefited from public support, maritime pine, record this period of time a significant regression in area and volume; and,

- The second species which received more public support, the cork oak, registered practically only a maintenance of the cultivated area, but with loss of quality in the product, cork.

Where was gone the moneys collected from taxes of national and European taxpayers?

The focus of the Portuguese government, for public funding to be provided for 2014/2020, still requires the efforts of taxpayers to benefit the forest industry strategies, out of step with forests. This time, the government wants to extend this effort to benefit the financial affairs of the pulp and paper industry. The future impact of this bet can be invaluable, especially if the expected climate changes on the environmental sphere are not minimized. At the southern European level, these changes may generate more and larger forest fires, and the main cause continues to be neglected: the lack of prospects for sustained, sustainable and socially responsible business in the forests in Portugal.

Are the European taxpayers unintentionally promoting forest fires in Portugal?

Acréscimo is a non-governmental organization created to promote forestry investments in accordance with the concept of sustainable development and social responsibility principles.

As Portuguese Government prepares another Rural Development Program (RDP) for the period 2014-2020, we question the results of those previous 25 years of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Portuguese forests.

What are we missing?

Acréscimo is could not find any evaluation study about the CAP funds application to forests in Portugal. The main question is: in consequence of these funds application on forests, how much of this investment was reverted effectively in adding economic, environment and social values?

On last June, Acréscimo questioned the Ministry of Agriculture in Portugal, regarding on the statistics related to afforestation in the last 25 years. Acréscimo also asked for the public information about forest investments – co-financed by the CAP – detailed by tree species and areas (hectares). Until November, no feed-back was received. Not even a link to access the data requested, that should be public and available information.

What do we suspect?

In the absence of concrete data, we suppose that the results related to the forestry measures using CAP funds in Portugal had no significant positive impacts to the Society, nor economic neither social nor environmental.

Worse, we suspect of the cyclic application of public funds in local cyclically affected by forest fires in the last 25 years.

What do we know?

On despite of the implementation of hundreds of millions of Euros of public support in Portuguese forests, we know that the weight of the gross value added (GVA) to forestry declined over 66% in 2010 compared to 1990, compared to the national GVA. We also know that the weight of the forestry sector (the set of forestry and forest-based industries) in Portuguese GDP fell down 40% between 2000 and 2010.

Forestry GVA / National GVA

Source: INE, CES 2011. Lisbon, 2012.

We also know that the forest species that has enjoyed more support - the maritime pine - experienced the retreat in its area of about 400 hectares in the last 25 years. This occurred in despite of the nearly 700 million of public funds applied. This amount could have boosted about 350 thousand hectares of new afforestation with this species.

Unfortunately, we know that the application of hundreds of millions of Euros of CAP funds will not minimize the cycle of destruction caused by forest fires in Portugal, which currently has similar impact to what it had in the mid 90s.

Forest Fires - Burned Areas 1980/2012

(red line - wooded areas / yellow - uncultivated areas / black - total burned area)

Source: ICNF. Lisbon, 2013)

Questions that may arise:

What is the real destination of hundreds of millions of Euros of public support that should create value in forests, ensuring employment and welfare to Society and protect Nature?

Are the European taxpayers unintentionally promoting forest fires in Portugal?

What measures of forest policy (beyond the RDP 2014/2020) has the Portuguese Government prepared to counter the progressive decline of forestry in Portugal? 90% of the forest areas in Portugal are owned by hundreds of thousands of families and rural communities, the vast majority undercapitalized and more than 60% of cases with properties up to 5 hectares. The forest product markets are characterized by loose-win relationship, where prices are generally imposed by the forest-based industries.

The attention of:

The Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

The Portuguese Parliament

The European Parliament

The Portuguese Government

The European Commission

The Portuguese pulp and paper industry: myths and reality.

The Portuguese paper industry holds some myths, frequently advertised by some opinion makers. Are such myths real?

1.     The weight of the paper industry in the national economy and, in particular, in the exports, has been the most common belief lately.

If, on one hand, it highlights the contribution of the paper industry in the economy, on the other there is a sharp decrease in the weight of all the forest-based industries in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - which was already in decline over the last decade. The weight of the forest-based industries in GDP was 2.2% in 2000 and in 2010 it was only 1.3%. The advertised weight of 3.0% of GDP in the forest sector (forest + forest-based industries) for 2000 is reduced in 2010 for only 1.8%.

The importance of the forest-based industry in the exports gross value corresponds to the increased weight of imports of wood. Part of those Imports comes from countries with dubious management rules on their natural resources.

The increase of business profitability on the forest-based industry has been joined by a sharp decline in the forestry business; with the business risk transfer to hundreds of thousands of private forest owners engaged in the roundwood production (families and rural communities hold 92% of the forest areas in Portugal, 60% of farms have less than 5 hectares). At the end of the chain, the risk is supported by the Society. The lack of business expectations in the forests leads to the absence of forest management. The absence of forest management has serious consequences on forest fires, with devastating effects on the statistics of burned forest areas. The Society annually supports high economic costs and huge environmental and social impacts caused by forest fires in Portugal.

Currently, the domestic pulp and paper industry has a very poor auto supplying capacity; rounding 20% (around 16% is Group Portucel Soporcel).

The presence of the pulp and paper industry in the forest (the area of ​​greatest business risk) is continuously decreasing. Only in the last decade eucalyptus areas held by the pulp and paper industry decreased more than 34 000 hectares. There seems to be a progressive disinvestment in the forest and, consequently, a business risk transfer to the hundreds of thousands of families that contribute to supply this industry.

2.     The excellence management awards are another myth.

For this “excellence” in management evaluation, the unilateral imposition of the roundwood prices to the forest owners has been contributed greatly. Such imposition by the pulp and paper industry is protected by the State, in complete contradiction to the principles of equity and healthy functioning of the markets. The luxury of cogeneration profits, guaranteed by the State, has constituted a favorable factor to a good performance management result.

It’s also important to notice that, in 2010 and 2011, Portucel achieved extraordinary overall revenues of about 50 million Euros, generated by tax benefits granted by the State.

3.     The performance in innovation.

The area of eucalyptus in Portugal has increased ten times in the last 50 years (currently the fifth largest in the world), but the national average productivity is the same today as it was previously registered in 1928. The pulp and paper industry had invested in R&D in the past, but currently it has almost abandoned this area, focusing on the quantity instead of quality. However, the risks of quantity production have been assumed by the Society.

After all, everything suggests that the myths associated to the pulp and paper industry in Portugal are nothing but myths. In fact, successive governments have protected the economic interests of shareholders, and its headquarters fiscally addressed in the Netherlands. This state protection is performed on the detriment of families, forests and Territory.

Surely, this is not the type of investment and unsustainable extraction Acréscimo advocates for forest areas and the forest-based industry in Portugal.

Acréscimo is a non-governmental organization that promotes sustainable and socially responsible forest investment. The association is seriously concerned about the high risk of forest fires related to this investment as well as the responsibilities of forest-based industry in promoting this risk (with the complicity of the state) besides a healthy and competitive functioning of markets.

Forest certification and the application of sludge from pulp and paper mills in forestry

Acréscimo is a Portuguese non-governmental organization which aims to promote sustainable and responsible investments in forests and uncultivated areas. The association has been communicating, in several media resources, its concerns related to the need to increase the credibility of forest certification among the population. This organization believes that the certified entities, especially the industrial companies that manage forest areas, have a decisive contribution to this objective.

The recent suspension of certificates issued under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in Portugal is our main concern as it corresponds to a very significant part of the Portuguese forest area certified by this scheme. Besides that, we also face the weakly regulated and supervised actions of industrial waste recovery through forestry fertilization programs, specifically the use of sludge from pulp and paper mills.

Pulp and paper industry, in the course of their activity, is responsible for producing a large amount of waste (estimated at approximately 48 tons per 100 tons of pulp produced) or inorganic (ashes, dregs and grits), or organics (sludge) and other sub products. The application of pulp and paper mills sludge on forest soil fertilization emerges as an alternative method of disposing of industrial waste. However, the application of sewage sludge should only be made ​​after a detailed study of its composition and after a proper characterization of the area for its application.

The Portuguese legal framework for the application of sludge in soils results from the implementation of the 1986 EU Sludge Directive (86/27/EEC). The law imposes the obligation to carry out frequent testing on the sludge or mixture of sludge, and on the soil and the water on the places where they are to be spread and incorporated. It imposes limits to the concentrations of heavy metals, organic compounds, dioxins and micro-organisms. It also determines the cases of prohibition in the application of sewage sludge, among others , injecting sludge in soils without agronomic value, burying sludge in soils (other than landfill), apply near water lines and its uptake, or adverse weather conditions ( between November and January, unless otherwise justified). The cellulosic sludge should be spread and incorporated into the soil within 48 hours of its extraction, using the appropriate means/action to ensure a proper soil surface mobilization.

The sludge producer, even if their forestry application occurs on lands of others, will always be co-responsible for possible harmful effects of its application in soil or anywhere else.

With an annual growth estimated at 25% for the paper industry, the production of sludge is projected to increase between 48 and 86%.

It is noted that concerns about the legal requirements for use of sludge and ashes in forest soils, are based on claims submitted to the competent National Authorities, involving Portucel Soporcel company that owns about 122.000 hectares of certified forest, ie more than 50% of the FSC certified forest area in Portugal.

Application of sludge from pulp and paper mills in eucalyptus forest without soil incorporation.

Therefore, it is important to clarify that the extent of a procedure of organic fertilization on forest soils is not conditioned by the growing need for disposal of industrial waste, with corresponding adverse effects especially for rural populations and habitats.

Acréscimo suggests the opening of these forested areas to the public visitation and experts’ evaluation.

Portuguese forests in numbers: a worrisome vision.

Over the last decades, the economic value of forests in Portugal has know a progressive decline, with several consequences on social and environmental levels.

Since 1996, it was diagnosed (Poyry, BPI, Agro.ges) that forests in Portugal have shown clear evidence of underutilization and over-exploitation. This diagnosis has worsened year after year.

At the current moment of crisis, the financial value of exports appears to be the more relevant factor for the government and for the economic analysts, however there is great concern about its impact on the degradation of natural resources that, though renewables, need measures to ensure their sustainability, both from an environmental and social, but also economic standpoint.

The current figures related to the forests and forestry in Portugal, based on the official statistics and credible sources, are worrisome:

67% represents the decrease in the weight of the Gross Value Added (GVA) of forestry in national GVA, i.e., 1.2% in 1990 fell to 0.4% in 2010.  (Source: Statistics Portugal, 2012)

40% reflects the reduction of the impact of the forest cluster on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 2000 (3%) to 2010 (1.8%). (Source: GPP - Office for Planning and Policy, Ministry of Agriculture, 2012).

1.500.000 hectares is the estimated area of ​​abandoned soils in Portugal. This area corresponds to 43% of the total forest surface and to 17% of the national land area.  (source. Secretary of State for Forests and Rural Development, 2012)

1.500.000 hectares correspond to the burned forest area accumulated over the last decade (2002/2012). This cumulative area corresponds to 43% of the total forest area in Portugal and 17% of the national land area.  (Source: ICNF - Institute for Conservation of Nature and Forestry, 2012)

74.200.000 Euros correspond to the amount spent on direct combat of forest fires in 2012, 10.3% more than the amount spent in 2011.  (source: ANPC - National Authority for Civil Protection, 2012).

1.000.000.000 Euros/year is the estimated cost of forest fires in Portugal, both on economy and environmental perspectives  (Manifesto for Forest against crisis, 2012).

2.400.000 tons of CO2 eq were emitted to the atmosphere in the last decade, according to PCS (a Portuguese think tank), as a result of forest fires.  (PCS Report, 2012).  However, scientific studies estimate values ​​10 times higher than those reported by PCS. (www.atmos-chem-phys.net/11/2625/2011/).

5.700.000 oil barrels is more than the equivalent of that wasted with the forest fires in the last decade.  (PCS Report, 2012).

35% was the average percentage related to the distribution of burned forest area, recorded by Portugal, between 2000 and 2009, compared to the set of 5 countries of Southern Europe.

100% reflects the increase of eucalyptus area in the last 30 years. Data related to the last Forest Inventory is not yet available, however it is estimated that eucalyptus plantations in Portugal, which ranks fifth in the world, have increased by more than 400 thousand hectares. This positive evolution occurs in spite of the facts that the abandonment of eucalypt forest management is higher and the annual productivity average has experienced no changes since 1928 (currently 10 cubic meters per hectare and year).

700.000.000 Euros was the amount of funding spent on support for forestation, for only one woody species, over the past 20 years. This value could have boosted 350 thousand new hectares of this species; however the same species lost around 400 thousand hectares during this period. Could the public funds applied to support forestation have boosted the "industry” of forest fires in Portugal?

16 years is the period of time since the unanimous approval, in the Portuguese Parliament, of the Law on Forest Policy, published in August 1996. However, after this period the law has not yet been regulated in its core measures. The regulatory process has already gone through the mandates of seven different ministers.

More “red” numbers related to forests and forestry in Portugal.

Over the last decades, the economic value of forests in Portugal has known a progressive decline, with several consequences on social and environmental levels.

Since 1996, it was diagnosed that forests in Portugal showed clear evidence of underutilization and over-exploitation. This diagnosis has worsened year after year.

• 2,3% concerns to the decrease of the annual average change rate, in value, registered in forestry over the last decade (2000-2010), resulting from the lower prices paid out to forest owners (source: INE/CES 2010).

• 7,1% corresponds to the growth of the intermediate consumption/production ratio, shown in the last decade (2000/2010, 20.6% in 2000 to 27.7% in 2010), an adverse situation for forestry (source: INE/CES 2010),

• 1,5 million hectares is the estimated area of ​​abandoned soils in Portugal. This area corresponds to 43% of total forest surface and to 17% of the national land area (source. Portuguese Government).

• 74,2 million Euros correspond to the amount spent on direct combat of forest fires in 2012, 10.3% more than the amount spent in 2011 (source: ANPC).

• 35% was the average percentage related to the distribution of forest burned area, recorded by Portugal, between 2000 and 2009, compared to the set of 5 countries of Southern Europe.

• 100% reflects the increase of eucalyptus area in the last 30 years. Data related to the last Forest Inventory are not yet available, however it is estimated that eucalyptus plantations in Portugal, which ranks fifth in the world, has increased by more than 400 thousand hectares. This positive evolution occurs in despite of the facts that the abandonment on eucalypt forests management is higher and the annual productivity average has experienced no changes since 1928 (currently is 10 cubic meters per hectare and year).