On 22 November, Baião Town Council organised a reforestation initiative in the Serra da Aboboreira, on land acquired by the municipality, as part of the celebrations for Autochthonous Forest Day. Several organisations were involved in the action, including the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF), which offered around 3,000 trees for the initiative.
The mayor of the town, Paulo Pereira, expressed his thanks to everyone involved, saying that it was ‘a special moment to repair some of the damage caused by the fires, a situation that, despite being negative, now represents an opportunity for us to do better, looking to the future,’ he said.
MUNICIPALITY CONTINUES TO ACQUIRE LAND IN THE MOUNTAINS
Paulo Pereira expressed the hope that the example set by the council in acquiring land – in the Serra do Castelo, Serra da Aboboreira and other areas of the municipality – for reforestation purposes, would inspire other landowners to contribute to ‘a more orderly and resilient territory’. He also revealed that the municipality recently bought four more plots of land in Aboboreira and is negotiating new acquisitions in the parish of Grilo. One of these plots will be used to install a new water point for fighting fires, while another will be used to create a ‘fuel management plot and possibly some afforestation’, he said.
CREATION OF AN INTEGRATED LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT AREA
As part of the ‘Baião Sustainable Destination’ strategy, the mayor also announced that the creation of an ‘Integrated Landscape Management Area – AIGP’ (formerly known as a ZIF) is in the final stages of design, in response to the need to organise and manage the landscape and increase the area of forest managed on a scale that promotes resilience to fires, the enhancement of natural capital and the promotion of rural encomia.
Finally, the mayor highlighted the status of ‘Regional Protected Landscape’ awarded to Serra da Aboboreira last year, a recognition that culminated an effort of around 30 years and is part of a wider environmental preservation project.
For her part, Sandra Sarmento, Northern Regional Director of the ICNF, emphasised the Aboboreira mountain range as an ‘emblematic site’, classified as a protected landscape. She pledged to collaborate in the recovery of the territory and to support efforts to make it more resilient to fire. In addition to the trees already offered, he guaranteed that Baião could count on more specimens and the support of the rural fire management structure.
Ricardo Magalhães, secretary-general of the Association of Douro and Tâmega Municipalities, praised the work of the Baião council, highlighting it as a ‘good example that should be replicated by other municipalities’.
Also involved in this action were the president of the Campelo and Ovil Parish Council, David Monteiro; the Baião Municipal Civil Protection Coordinator, José Manuel Ribeiro; the Amarante Municipal Civil Protection Coordinator, Hélder Ferreira; the Head of the ICNF’s Sub-Regional Centre – Rural Fire Management, Paulo Bessa; senior technicians from the ICNF’s Rural Fire Management Team, Artur Borges and José Filipe Pinho; 8 members of the ICNF’s Forest Firefighter Sapper Force; 1 representative from the Douro and Tâmega Municipalities Association; the Commander of the GNR’s Nature and Environmental Protection Service (SEPNA), Artur Mota; 2 members of the GNR’s Nature and Environmental Protection Service (SEPNA); 2 representatives from the Baião GNR station; representatives from the Baião and Santa Marinha fire brigades; technicians from the Technical Offices of Baião, Amarante and Marco de Canaveses; the Technical Director of the Entre Douro e Tâmega Forestry Association, António Neto; the DMO of Green Team, Dora Pinto, other technicians and employees of the municipality of Baião.
