Serra da Lousã: ICNF prepares to cut away what has burned and what has not burned

Invasive species control? No. Soil retention? No. Cutting down what survived the fire? YES.

You read that right. One month after the flames passed, the Portuguese Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF) is preparing to cut down what burned and what did not burn. When prospecting and characterising the burned area in the Lousã mountain range, we came across an extensive forest area recently marked for felling. It is a coniferous forest on the northern slope of the mountain range, composed of black pine and Scots pine trees, that was affected by the flames with varying degrees of severity: from areas where the fire didn't leave a single needle standing, to considerable areas where there was only ground fire, sparing individual trees and the population.

It was in this context that Milvoz noted the indiscriminate marking of all trees for felling, on a scale of hundreds, regardless of whether they had been more or less affected by the flames. The marking suggested the imminence of clear-cutting on a long, steep slope.

Considering this scenario, Milvoz tried to clarify the scope of the intervention and was able to confirm the scenario that we feared in a telephone conversation with the ICNF. The engineer responsible for the intervention stated that they would have to hurry to cut everything down ‘so that the price of wood would not depreciate’. When questioned about the lack of criteria regarding trees that were unaffected or only slightly damaged by the fire, she argued that they would be affected by pests in the future (well, we thought ironically, nothing like solving the problem at its root!).

The forest in question, with ecological and landscape values that cannot be overlooked, is integrated into an area classified under the Natura 2000 Network. It is the result of afforestation by the former forestry services, constituting a mature pine forest with trees that are over half a century old. Following a huge ecological loss in the Serra da Lousã due to the fire last August, the ICNF's position and priorities are focused on taking advantage of the situation to extract as much as they can, burnt and unburnt wood, removing considerable portions of forest that survived the fire.

The overall area was severely affected by the fire, so the surviving patches of forest play a key role in providing refuge for wildlife that escaped the flames, even though they are coniferous plantations that are not as biodiverse as the native spontaneous forests. This case clearly demonstrates the ICNF's priority: to extract the maximum yield from the forest, without any consideration for the context or conservation status of the areas where it is located. Is this the example that the entity responsible for nature conservation in Portugal is setting for other landowners?

The planned intervention will not only further weaken the soil, accentuating erosion, but will also open the door to the establishment of invasive species. This is a process that the ICNF itself has been scandalously promoting over the years, legitimising clear-cutting in the Serra da Lousã Special Conservation Area, calling it ‘normal forestry activity’.

For the effective conservation of the already severely degraded Natura 2000 network in Portugal, stronger regulations are needed, with the ICNF applying good management practices, particularly in a sensitive post-fire context: restricting clear-cutting in the Natura 2000 Network and protected areas, adopting principles of nature-friendly forestry, with selective cutting accompanied by tree replanting and control of invasive species, mitigating erosion and preserving the landscape and biodiversity.