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PORTUGAL’S “GREEN OIL”
The Costa government was attacked; in their desire to maintain austerity and keep public spending down, the Socialists had dismantled the forestry service, privatized aerial firefighting resources, and slashed spending on forestry policy. Between 2006 and 2016, the number of forest rangers was reduced by a third in a country that is one-third forest, and where fires destroy an average of 100,000 hectares of woodland annually.
Another culprit is intensive eucalyptus cultivation. This Australian native is known to reduce soil quality and biodiversity and is highly flammable. But it has been widely planted by small growers for 20 years because it grows rapidly, requires no maintenance, and can be sold to paper manufacturers such as the Navigator Company. “Eucalyptus now accounts for a quarter of Portuguese forests. It’s the most common species in the country,” according to the League for the Protection of Nature (LPN). “Portugal has the highest concentration of eucalyptus in the world. This tree, which the state referred to as Portugal’s ‘green oil’ for a time, is viewed as a driver of the economy.”
The Navigator Company is Portugal’s third-largest exporter (3 percent of the total). “In 2002 to 2004, Manuel Barroso’s government negotiated with the company to step up its economic development,” said Nádia Piazza, whose 5-year-old son died in the 2017 fires and who leads the Association for the Victims of the Pedrógão Grande Fire. ‘Thereafter, local authorities permitted small landowners to plant eucalyptus unregulated. As forestry policy was based on short-term profit, the trees were soon everywhere in the poorest areas.” To the dismay of environmental protection organizations, Passos Coelho’s government deregulated eucalyptus growing on plots of under two hectares (80 percent of forest areas), transforming Portugal into “Eucalyptugal.”
“Pedrógão Grande is one of the country’s poorest areas. A third of our population of 2,500 is over 65 and has a pension of less than 300 euros a month,” said Valdemar Alves, its Socialist mayor. “Planting a few eucalyptus on your plot is a way of ensuring a decent income to live on.” The population has halved in 50 years. Alves said, “All the young people go to Lisbon to look for work. This rural exodus means the forests and fields are abandoned, and the lack of upkeep means fires spread more rapidly.” Piazza said, “We’ve lost loved ones, but we’ve also lost all hope. We feel abandoned.”
The town is surrounded by charred grey hills as far as the eye can see, but eucalyptus saplings are already emerging. “Fire encourages the spread of the species as well as its invasive behavior,” according to the LPN. After 2017, and with an increased risk of fire, the government boosted personnel numbers, strengthened aerial firefighting resources, and paid €7 million to bring Siresp back into public ownership. But the prime minister has appointed Tiago Martins de Oliveira, a former Navigator Company executive, to head the Agency for the Integrated Management of Rural Fires, the body set up this year to plan and coordinate fire response. The new regional forest management plan that has come into effect prioritizes eucalyptus for plantation and reforestation on 95 percent of the area. “The new programs show no will to change the situation. They’re operating as if it’s business as usual,” said the LPN.
Since last year there have been signs that Portugal’s economic boom is slowing. After seven years of uninterrupted growth, the tourism growth rate fell markedly in 2018 (down to 3.8 percent from 9.1 percent in 2017). In June Banco de Portugal warned a sudden interruption of the overheated speculation in property was possible. Economic growth, which was 2.8 percent in 2017, fell to 2.1 percent in 2018 and is predicted to be 1.7 percent this year.
The Costa government, in trying to combine social measures and budgetary rigor, may have been pursuing a mirage rather than a miracle. “The geringonça has been a political laboratory, a new experiment for the left,” said economist José Reis. “But with October’s parliamentary election imminent, can it last?”
Source: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/portugal-economy-public-investment/
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