Forest Fire Area

National Forest Inventory 6 - Review

The National Forest Inventory 6 (INF 6) is the most updated version of the NFIs in Portugal according to the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF). According to the ICNF, preliminary results were presented in 2013. The following is a summary of the most important terms available on the ICNF website under the name “Land use and forest species areas of mainland Portugal. Preliminary results".

Our objective is to analyze the evolution of land use areas and forest species for the years 1995, 2005 and 2010.

‣ Evolution of land use in mainland Portugal

The analysis of the evolution for the period 1995-2010 highlights the increased use of urban land, shrubs and pastures, as well as inland waters. On the contrary, the use of forest land, for agriculture and unproductive, has decreased.

It should be emphasized that, as indicated in this report, the decrease in forest area is mainly due to the reduction of deforested areas (burnt, cut and regenerating areas), especially the increase of the forested area due to the action of nature itself ( natural regeneration) and the action of forest owners, who have continued to invest in the forest through afforestation and reafforestation actions.

The report also highlights how the northern and central areas of Portugal are those that suffered the largest fall in forest areas.

‣ Evolution of total areas by species

Regarding the changes suffered by the main species, it should be noted:

- As for Pinus pinaster, between 1995 and 2010 decreased in about 263,000 ha. Most of it has been transformed into bushes and pastures (165,000 ha), 70,000 ha in eucalyptus, 13,000 ha in urban spaces and 13,700 ha in forested areas with other tree species.

- Eucalyptus increased in the period 1995-2010 by 13%, of pine tree (70,000ha), bush and pasture (13,500ha) and agricultural areas (12,000ha). It should also be mentioned that about 8,000 ha of eucalyptus has been transformed into urban land.

Regarding the cork oak, despite having undergone a small significant change for the period from 1995 to 2010, it was submitted to afforestation and deforestation processes. gained by afforestation of agricultural land of the order of 18,000 ha.

Forest fires overview (Portugal)

‣ Geographic Area

In 2017, according to available data, more than 509,848 ha were burned (from January 7 to December 15, 2017). The ICNF's provisional data on burned hectares indicate that from January to October (day 16) it burned around 442,418 ha.

It is important to highlight that for approximately 77.65% Ha burned it is not possible to identify the geographic area to which they belong since the data consulted do not provide such information.Based on the available information, it can be seen that the most affected area has been the Pinhal Interior Sul zone (with 7.10% of total Ha burned), followed by the Tâmega zone (representing 3.82% of total Ha burned), Beira Interior Norte (2.67%), Alto Trás-os-Montes (2.24%) and, in fifth position, the Minho-Lima zone with a 1.64%

‣ Temporal distribution

With regard to the temporal distribution of fires, it is also important to indicate that approximately 1592 Ha are undated; that is, it is not possible to identify the day in which they took place. The table on the right gives the list of hectares burned according to the month of the year in which the fires occurred. This table shows the differences between the data obtained and those published by the ICNF in the 2017 interim report.

Given that these data are provisional, in this study we will use the data provided directly by CIM Alto Minho. The data under study were built from own analyzes that update and complete the statistics presented by the Institute of Nature and Forest Conservation (ICNF) for the whole year 2017.

Forest Fire Study Area (Alto Minho)

The study area of interest is that of Alto-Minho which consists of 10 municipalities:

Arcos de Valdevez
Ponte da Barca
Caminha
Ponte de Lima
Melgaço
Valença
Monção
Viana do Castelo
Paredes de Coura
Vila Nova de Cerveira.

‣ Population data (2011)

The upper table gives a description of population data for the municipalities of Alto-Minho. Specifically, it shows the aging rate as well as the resident population in 2011 for each municipality.

‣ Economic activity data (2011)

The upper table shows the number of employees according to economic sector for the total of Alto-Minho municipalities.

‣ Cattle herd data

Summary by municipality (1989-1999-2009-2016)

Finally, the table on the left shows livestock asset data for the 1989, 1999, 2009 and 2016 periods.

Data provided directly by CIM Alto Minho.

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