The CDU warned while visiting the Vasco Gil site, in the parish of Santo António, Funchal, of the need to implement political measures to combat the scourge of eucalyptus. The regional coordinator, Edgar Silva, stated that “a parliamentary proposal will be immediately presented with the aim of effectively combating the existence of eucalyptus trees in areas of greater risk and, from the outset, in the vicinity of residential areas.”.
According to Edgar Silva, “Vasco Gil is one of the locations where the population is completely surrounded by eucalyptus trees. Here, in the parish of Santo António, as in so many other places, such as in Lombos and Lajinhas, in Monte, or in São Roque, in the high areas of the municipality of Câmara de Lobos or Santa Cruz, next to residential areas, the risks of fire are increased due to the large patches of eucalyptus, and action needs to be taken to address these high-risk problems to protect the population and property.”
The CDU regional coordinator stressed that “the forest fires that have burned have recurred precisely in the same ones that burned four and six years ago, and this year because the invasive forest species are exactly the same. If the current forest (eucalyptus, acacias, broom, gorse), which are ecologically harmful to soils, fauna, flora, and water resources, is not gradually replaced, and if forest conversion is not carried out with other species, it will be even more difficult to reverse the repeated cyclicity of fires that have ravaged our archipelago, which has in its forest a special added value of strategic importance for its development, at the most diverse levels.”
According to Edgar Silva, “the new parliamentary initiative aims to implement a Regional Programme for the gradual reduction of eucalyptus in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, thus intending to commit the government to the development of a framework of measures to discourage the continued presence of eucalyptus in the archipelago of Madeira.”
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
