The Institute of Nature and Forest Conservation (ICNF) is preparing a new measure to support the pasture in the scope of fire prevention, after the previous support fell short of expectations.
In 2019, Portugal was news in its revolutionaries “Low-Cost Firefighters”-The Sapar Goats.
The function of goats is to eat the low vegetation, which contributes to the combustion and propagation of fires.
Contests to support the so -called Sapareiras goats – sheep and goats that ensure land cleaning – came after the big fires of 2017, but their search was far short of expected, with the approved applications to total about 800 thousand euros , when there were a total of ten million euros available in the three notices launched between 2018 and 2019.
The weak search for candidates led to a reflection within the Institute for Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF), which concluded that “the amount funded per hectare of pastoreio was low, taking into account the requirement that a grazing activity entails”, He told Lusa the institution, in a written response.
According to the ICNF, in the early years, it will also have contributed to the failure to “lack a funding measure that would allow the pastor to obtain technical assistance for the submission of applications and payment requests”.
ICNF now prepares a new measure to support the grazing within the scope of fire preventionafter the previous support has failed.
With the execution of the applications of the previous three notices finished (the last December 31, 2024), the ICNF is now elaborating “a measure that aims to bet on preventing rural fires”, with appeal, “namely, to the pasture”, he said.
According to the ICNF, this new measure should be launched later this year.
The three notices launched in the past allowed to support 48 Herds of goats and sheep, with 10,033 approved staff, of which about seven thousand were goats.
Of the 48 herds, four are managed by public entities, most concentrated in the regions Center (15) and North (21).
In the approved applications, the cleanliness of a total of 3,346 hectares for these herds over five years, he said.
