Portugal’s picturesque native woodlands

Portugal’s picturesque native woodlands are home to oaks, chestnuts, and laurels. The cork oak (Quercus suber), Portugal’s national tree, is an important part of forest ecology, as well as the country’s economy. But today eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus), a native of Australia, has taken over to become Portugal’s most common tree. Photo credit: Cath Traynor

Fire-fighting helicopters had become an everyday occurrence

Throughout the summer the sight of fire-fighting helicopters and planes crisscrossing the sky had become an everyday occurrence, as firefighters struggled to put out thousands of forest fires. Photo credit: Anon

Thick smoke blotted out the summer sun for days

Thick smoke blotted out the summer sun for days at a time, with the authorities trying to cope with multiple out-of-control wild fires across the country. Photo credit: Julie Jennings

Proportionally, Portugal now has more eucalyptus than anywhere in the world.

Vast plantations cover huge areas of the central and northern regions of the country. The powerful paper and pulp industry lobby has opposed any regulatory efforts to contain how it is planted. As a result, ineffective forestry policy allows illegal plantations and ignores fire safety precautions, such as safe distances from houses and roads. Photo credit: Allysse Riordan

Eucalyptus causes much environmental damage.

When eucalyptus is planted the land is ploughed on contour, with the topsoil and any plant life literally bulldozed away. Eucalyptus plantations are “green deserts”, they exhaust the soil, out-compete other plant life, and can’t support wildlife. They dry up scarce groundwater, vital to communities in the summer, and they are highly flammable, spreading forest fires over great distances. Photo credit: Ashlesha Khadse

Wildfires in central Portugal

On 17th June a dry thunderstorm ignited a forest fire in central Portugal, already parched from an intense heat wave and severe drought. It quickly spread over nine different municipalities and took a week and vast fire-fighting resources to extinguish. Sixty four people lost their lives, mostly trying to flee the fires in their cars, on roads flanked by eucalyptus plantations. Photo credit: Margus Kurvitis

A car that melted to a halt

The car owner Mário from Pedrogão Grande who ran away after abandoning the car was found dead nearby. In this photo, molten aluminium from the car engine is seen flowing down the edge of the road, which is flanked by eucalyptus plantations. Temperatures were high enough to melt aluminium, which has a melting point of 660 degrees Celsius. Photo credit: Domingos Patacho

Vast areas of Portugal's country side have been burned

This year an area more than six times greater than the average over the past ten years has been affected by fires. Photo credit: Simone Lovera

Burnt landscape in the aftermath of the fires

Around 70% of the area that burned in June was covered in eucalyptus and pine monoculture plantation. Photo credit: Domingos Patacho

The fires came very close to houses and farms

Many houses and farms were literally surrounded by plantations, and suffered badly because of it. Where fires spread too quickly for people to evacuate, they had to seek shelter in basements and water tanks. Photo credit: Working with the 99% co-op

The fires surrounded many villages and towns

Whole villages and even some towns have been totally surrounded by fire this summer, with high winds and extensive plantations allowing fire to spread fast. Photo credit: Ronnie Hall

Eucalyptus trees spread fires fast

Eucalyptus trees have evolved to deal with fire: they don’t just catch fire, they spread it. Long strands of bark hang down the tree to move the fire quickly up into the canopy, and their leaves can project fires hundreds of metres onwards. Photo credit: Margus Kurvitis

Native oaks and chestnuts are fire-resistant and did not burn

Despite the extensive damage, in many places it was clear just how fire-resistant native trees like oaks and chestnuts are, compared to invasive plantation eucalyptus and pine. Photo credit: Annabelle de la Panouse

Eucalyptus regenerates quickly and does not let other species grow

Fires in the plantations aren’t even an opportunity to start again: eucalyptus regenerates very quickly, and already all over Portugal burned eucalyptus has re- sprouted, even with continuing drought conditions. Photo credit: Annabelle de la Panouse

Many houses were saved by a protective barrier of cork oak

Some impacted communities have acted quickly since the fires. To the village of Ferraria de São João, Penela, it was clear that many houses were saved by a protective barrier of cork oak above the village, whereas the eucalyptus plantations in surrounding areas were all burned. Photo credit: Nuno Antunes/Revelamos

Villagers uprooting eucalyptus to create a protective barrier of fire-resistant native species

Villagers in Ferraria de São João voted unanimously to create a “Village Protection Zone” of fire resistant trees, a 500m buffer around the village where eucalyptus would be removed and native species of oak, chestnut and walnut planted instead. Work has already begun to dig the eucalyptus up. Photo credit: Amigos da Ferraria de São João

Residents replanting burned areas with native trees

In the absence of sensible forestry policy or concrete government action after the fires, residents have taken matters into their own hands. They have begun replanting burned areas with fruit trees and native, fire-resistant species. Photo credit: Rui Freitas