The fire that has plowed since Saturday in the Peneda-Gerês National Park has consumed about 200 hectares, but the main protection efforts are focused on Mata do Cabril, the Secretary of State for Nature Conservation told Lusa.
“Within the national territory, we are talking about an area between 150 and 200 hectares of environmental values of partial and complementary protection”, said João Catarino, who has the portfolio of the State Secretariat for Nature Conservation, Forests and Land Management. Territory.
“We are doing everything so that it does not reach the total protection area that is Mata do Cabril. There, yes, we have enormous environmental values. It is the ‘ex-libris’ of that national park, which is the only one we have ”, he declared, adding that he hopes that the fire will be able to be neutralized even today.
João Catarino indicated that fighting the Lindoso fire has “added difficulty” because of the relief of the region, which has forced the efforts to be essentially “manual, dismounted” and with aerial means.
The Secretary of State mourned the death of pilot Jorge Jardim, whose flaming plane crashed on Saturday, an accident that caused serious injuries to his Spanish co-pilot.
João Catarino welcomed the work of the fire brigade, forest sappers and the national body of forest agents.
In Peneda-Gerês, there are fifty of these forest agents, tutored by the Institute of Nature and Forest Conservation, who are “people who live in the territory” and who work throughout the year to prevent fires, a model that João Catarino defends that must be replicated in other protected areas.
At 17:45, nine aerial means, 160 operational and 46 vehicles were fighting the fire that has been plowing since Saturday between Portugal and Spain in the parish of Lindoso, Ponte da Barca municipality, in the Peneda-Gerês National Park, according to Civil Protection page.
Most of this fire is being fought on Spanish territory.
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