Resolution of the Council of Ministers No. 45-A/2020 approving the National Plan for the Rural Fires Integrated Management.

This Resolution of the Council of Ministers approves the National Plan for the Rural Fires Integrated Management (PNGIFR). PNGIFR will last 11 years and recognizes that rural fires cannot be completely avoided, so it is necessary to prepare the territory, people and operational personnel to work on the ground in order to increase the safety of all but, at the same time, using fire, as ecological factor commonly used in agricultural, forestry and habitat management, in a technically sustainable way. With a focus on prevention, educating and sensitizing communities to change behaviours, and with an ambitious vegetation management programme, serious rural fires that may occur will be fewer in number, will destroy much less value and pose a lesser threat to security and people's lives. The 2020-2030 Strategy establishes the vision, the mission, values, identifies the context, designates strategic guidelines and objectives, presents the goals and introduces a new governance model and risk management, detailed in the specific document of the Process Chain. It is from this strategic support that the Action Program deepens, assigns priorities and details the lines of action, or projects to be implemented, with the respective timetable, budget and primarily responsible and participating entities, also incorporating and reinforcing measures that they already have been implemented in the last two years.
In this view, the use of fire is a useful and ecological tool for managing wild forests, provided that its use is technically supported for the clearing of scrub, agricultural forest collection for energy or composting. This vision converges on the Mission of protecting people and goods from rural fires and valuing wild areas, keeping ecosystems in good condition through the identification of strategic guidelines and respective objectives, for which it is necessary to consistently implement a cohesive programme of actions and projects for the period 2020-2030 and to replace the current National Forest Protection System against Fires (SGIFR). PNGIFR applies to the entire territory, linking all public and private entities and all citizens, encouraging them through a resourceful action programme, to assume their responsibilities and duties. Since Portugal is a signatory to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 of the United Nations (UNDRR) and a member of the FAO, which advocates principles and guidelines for fire management, a management system is adopted as an element of the fire integrated strategy. In summary, these systems consider sectoral policies that are intercepted and are based on operational planning and management, including the social, economic, and cultural dimension and ecological value in order to minimize the damage and maximize the benefit of the fire.