Bernd Markowsky

Rain dont fall just

from the sky

Of the necessity of the forest and its protection in Portugal

The forst of Junceda, Serra do Geres, May 2011. The monoculture of pines in the background is burned off in wide range. While standing in an American desert, I suddenly realized that rain does not fall from the heavens; it issues forth from the ground. Deserts do not form because there is no rain; rather, rain ceases to fall because the vegetation has disappeared. Building a dam in the desert is an

Coverfotograph: Cloud above Covide, 2009. In the background the rockformation Calcedonia.

attempt to treat the symptoms of the disease, but is not a strategy for increasing rainfall. First we have to learn how to restore the ancient forests. Masanobu Fukuoka

We can only defend what we know

Conversation with Dr. Nuno Gomes de Oliveira,
Director of the Parque Biolgico in Vila Nova de Gaia /Portugal
Every year, the same images: Burning forests in Portugal. About the background of this country however we know little. The author knows the situation in the north of Portugal, is aware of the history of commons and forestry, forest use and outrageous abuse. In an interview with the director of the Parque Biolgico we have now in front of the eyes precarious structures and the details of a shocking development. Behind the economic and political decline threatens to disappear a fatal environmental policy. But here whole Europe should be alerted. The mentioned regions lie in the north (national park Peneda-Gers) and in the northeast of Porto (Serra de Valongo) to reach at 20 minutes with the metro. This are climatic preferred areas, because the north is traditionally rainy what changes now successive ones and so rich in fluent waters. In and around the National Park (PNPG) eucalyptus was hardly planted, was committed for it another heavy sin: To counteract against the soil erosion, the state forestry commission seventy, eighty years ago has distributed in large quantities seed of an Australian acacia to the sowing which becomes now the plague and must be fought with great effort. The Alentejo in middle Portugal is a very dry and hot plain and will become according to the predictions in twenty, thirty years a desert. There is kleinbuerlichen olive cultivation(outhouse) which suffers from the Spanish competition of big farms, and great cork oaken plantations whose preservation and use is supported by companies like Amorin Cork and by the WWF. Algarve in the south is a mixing scenery with fruit growing (oranges, pomegranate among other things), to dry scrub and zones similar to steppe. Also here cork plantations, olive groves and almond groves are found. Eucalyptus became widely planted in the seventies to build up own paper industry. He grows fast and needs no care. The trees lyes, nevertheless, the ground from and expel with their content in aggressive ethereal oils rodent, insects and birds. The only animals who eat young eucalyptus leaves are koalas which there are not living in Portugal. For other animal species and botanical species they are however toxic and useless, just as their fruits. In the Minho area, the north of Portugal, rules predominantly the traditional agriculture of small family businesses with few cows who serve excluding the meat production to the cultivation of corn, potatoes and different vegetables.
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Portugal is the classical country of the forest fire in Europe. In 2010 has burnt a surface of 166,399 hectares from which 45.3 percent constitute to forest or tree-passed surfaces. The expenses are officially declared with 3000 per hectare. 75 percent of that over Europe by forest fires emitted CO2 come from Portugal. Key players of the natural destruction are a centralised and politicised state bureaucracy which faces to the fire prevention, the reforestation and generally the nature conservation unimaginatively, ineffectively, often virtually indifferently and an industry, that scenery primarily considers as a profitable resource for industrial parks, wood and tourism. Main-affected is the rural population whose hereditary rights are limited to the local property, the commons (ways, waters, meadows, hat forest increasingly up to cases of expulsion, and the nature which wears heavy scars of devastation. One of many examples is the Serra Amarela mentioned in the following conversation, today only a karst high-level surface largely deforested with isolated groups of trees.

View from the Serra do Gers towards the Serra Amarela in the background. In the valley the reservoir of Vilarinho das Furnas. Besides there is to sheep and goats cookers. The National Park Peneda-Gers is the only absolutely protected nature reserve of Portugal. In the granite mountainous country of the north-east conveniently (to 1500 metres high) he passes over, 72,000 hectares, seemlessly in the Spanish National Park Xures. Founded in 1971, only 7.5 percent are in the possession of the state, a part is a private land ownership, about two thirds consist of commons what leads over and over again to conflicts with the park management which pursues a restrictive exclusion of all human activity with the exception of tourism. The park management stopped maintaining and protecting activities extensively to take part in the tourist industry. It pursues a
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lucrative canoe business', has converted big nursery gardens into herbal farms which market aromatic herbs under the label of the national park. Since 2008 the national park is a part of the European Pan park project which markets wilderness. B e r n d M a r k o w s k y : I recently came back from Peneda-Gers and had to re-experience, in what a sad state is the National Park. After the devastating forest fires of last summer I do not see any substantial progress on forest protection, afforestation and the improvement of the relationship between residents and park management.

N u n o G o m e s d e O l i v e i r a : Yes, Gers is practically abandoned! It is obvious that, how the park acts, he always will face many problems with the local residents. Also there are people who want to do things which are incompatible with the concern of the park. This is normal for a nature reserve. Why nobody develops projects for the eco-tourism? There is tourism, but no cafs and restaurants of high quality with ecological claim and products from the region. For such ideas the park should be the engine. Now it becomes almost thirty years that I visited the French nature reserve Equitnea close to Bordeaux the

first time. From its expansion it is one of the biggest nature reserves in Europe. At that time the park had three employees: the manager, his deputy and a secretary. In the Portuguese national park 300 employees worked already once. These three people promoted several projects in the park, and one was a restaurant, formerly with dubious call which was rebuilt. The director spoke with the owner who continued with the exploration, assumed the construction works on the house which had great architectural value and was very beautiful and created thus a very pleasant space for the visitors. Our parks and natural reserves don't take any initiative, have no visions and, beyond it, create constantly obstacles for somebody who wants to do some5

thing. Many of those which work for the natural reserves have a fundamentalistic view of the nature conservation. At the end they are more papal than the pope. I give you an example: I promoted the foundation of the nature reserve of S.Jacinto and its alignment should be in his middle, not at the side of a national road, as this is now the case. This would not have had the slightest environmental impact and it would have been the right way how the people move through this reserve and understand it. It is completely of sand, and its most interesting part is the dune chain. Where do the cars park now? Two kilometres away. Of course the most of the visitors are not going over there. We must make easier the access of the people; therefore, I always thought that the center should be in its middle and to reach by car. However, the engineers do not understand this and have a very destabilising and centralist attitude. Instructions from Lisbon to the park of Montezinho or Gers do not work, because the distance is too big. Then they make development plans without themselves to remind at the fact that, how in the case of Montezinho, that these sceneries were formed by the local residents. Nevertheless, the typical construction style has been created not by architects, but by the rural population. And now? Does it require the interference of an architect to build a pigsty? This is an absolute insanity! If one inspects the development of the villages, ok, but these exaggerations are impossible to be understood. The Director, Dr. Lagdio Domingos, said me that the last year one million euro were given to the commons. Look, this crosses the border to the ridiculous. Our only national park should have a budget of more than 50 millions. We have three millions here, in the Parque Biolgico. They come including the salaries on a sum like we here have in our small park of 35 hectares. Is this intelligible that they have with their 70,000 hectares the same budget like us? This is obviously more than ridicu6

lous. For farther ideas that people have, they will do nothing as one sees in the P.N.P.G. In the administrative building of the national park in Braga are displayed publicity leaflets for the European PAN park project. The idea behind this project is to create completely protected zones in which the nature remains left to itself. However, at least for the north of Portugal this cannot work, because the population lives too close at the park, often enough in his midst. I always had the impression, that the Portuguese variant is designed merely to unfold no activity and to save expenses. So, in such a way the visitor's rooms also are looking there, dusty and lifelessly. Who plans the state budget, must understand that the protective areas, all above the scenery, are a determining economic resource, because there is no tourism without scenery, excluded that tourism of the discos, how in Cancn and at the end Benidorme. The real tourism is based principally on the scenery, the natural, cultural, etc. Till one recognises that the preservation of the Mata de Albergaria is not less important, as the preservation of the Eiffel Tower, the budgets will have shrunk for the landscape conservation up to the unrecognisability. Gers in the seventies up to the eighties was as a tourism area dead. Nobody went there. The mineral springs had gone to ruin and nobody visited them. The brand National Park dealt with the tourism in Gers, it has developed him. This brand has gained to the state already a lot of money, and exactly that's why it would have only advantages, to provide more resources for the protected areas, but nobody notes it! There is a bigger interest to build a tourist Mega Resort on the coast of Alentejo against all rules and against all laws, exactly those projects of national interest, the PIN which march through above all other. On a caricature in a French magazine a type with the certain scent of property developer was illustrated, who looked around on an island and said: How

nicely. Wonderful, here we will put immediately a tourist centre and this. . . trees there cut away, they disturb the view. This is our reality, and our National Park must add to all sufferings of the latest forest fires that sight which frightened me in my recently visit. To look at Vilarinho the Furnas, is tormenting and embarrassing at the same time. Someone is shocked, if he sees at the Serra Amarela, everything nude and burnt. Vilarinho shocks from this and farther reasons. No real efforts are made to the reforestation, everything goes over in an unbelievable process of the soil erosion, and if, finally, the responsibles awake, there is no more ground for the reforestation. There must be seized emergency measures or there threatens a disaster, and one does not come to me with five hectares of cultivation. The complete mountains must be afforested! For Vilarinho das Furnas there should be a PIN, a plan of national interest. I know that there are some location advantages for shrubs, but now they would already have to be planted and the necessary measures now seized, so that it does not burn in this summer again.

According to it the acquisition at least of one farther water tank truck and the construction of water tanks at particularly fire risk places would be necessary. As to me the head of the fire brigade of Terras de Bouro as well as the park director confirmed, the fire in last summer could spread out till the Mata de Cabril only because the tank truck with 30,000 litres of capacity had to return in the valley to take up water again. And I repeat untiringly that there is no possibility at all to prevent forest fires without the participation of the local residents. I agree with you completely. That the fires are set, in that fact no doubt can

View over the reservoir of Vilarinho das Furnas towards the Serra Amarela, Mrz 2011.

consist. There is not a spontaneous outbreak of fire. But there in this region there must be a greater sensitivity. There must be rules. In the national park and somewhere else there is an old war, which due comes already from the nineteenth century, this is the war of the commons. It is the problem of the forced occupation of local ground by the forestry commission beginning in 1800. While the memory of the urban population is short-term, in the country people do not forget so easily. In Gers the occupation of the commons was not very unprincipled, as Aquilino Ribeiro tells. This was more serious on the edge of the park, and the annoyance linked with it still is too

freshly in recollection. No one ever tried to counteract against it. Up to the 25th of April there was an authoritarian posture in relation with the people and the management was never able to approach them. Even I know that this it is not easy to achieve. There are places where this is possible, but I must also admit that it is very difficult in that region on account of the inheritance from the times of the reafforestation. For the reforestation pastureland was used, the forest guards were very repressive, there was much authoritarian affected behaviour. However, nevertheless, that what is now the national park for more than thirty years should have had time enough to leave all this behind. Also because I feel generally that the people are not against the park. The people are against the park management and that pretty strongly. Certainly. There is a problem focused especially on the region of Terras de Bouro. That war of the Serra Amarela, that Vilarinho and the surrounding mountains belong to the former inhabitants, and also this war was never settled, including a clearance from a juridical point view. What would fail certainty because of the superior strength of the dinosaur EDP*. Vilarinho das Furnas was a

Mountain pasturein the Serra do Gers, May 2011.

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very striking and awful event for the inhabitants. It was the only barrage of the world built for political reasons. It was established to finish with this village which lived since centuries completely according to its own rules, and this marks deeply. And even more, until now nobody takes serious these social problems of the park. The mayor of Ponte da Barca said in a statement, that the population does not agree with the fact that the park management is in Braga, far from Gers. He demanded the formation of an autonomous park management for PenedaGers. When the statute was reorganised for the nature conservation two years ago, it was created this structure of the regional management which obviously does not work. A nature reserve or whatever must have as a face the responsible leading person of a protected area. If it has no face, if it has no soul it dont work. Someone cannot jump from Gers to Montezinho, from Montezinho to Alvo and always so on. And it comes even more badly; all the wetlands have only one manager. He must be in Real de S.Antnio in Vila, he must come to the Minho, and the solution is to buy a helicopter. Now everything is done in the name of the saving resources what saves clearly no resources, because who was a director, becomes adviser or whatever, and the salaries of these people are farther paid. Loss of efficiency and possible increase in losses by travel expenses are the result I think, it is important that every protected area, it might be big or small, has a face. This is the case of Gers. I heard from a model of the forestry commission in the past that there was a delegate in Motalegre, one in Arco de Valdevez etc., because these areas are big enough and it is difficult to walk from one point on the other. The national park must have somebody with the character of duration and continuity who knows the area and the population. The acting director does not make this, because he has piles of paper in front of him on the desk, which applies his whole time, and this is bad.

After some conversations which I carried on with him I came to the conclusion, that he has no autonomy in his decisions and is able to solve nothing, whatever it is. Just because he has no autonomy. He remains depending on Lisbon and, hence, is afraid to say something, to refer a position, God prevents, that could be contradicted. How does one come out of this catch-22 situation? Good question. This very question those directors should ask themselves. First of all only we must come out of the crisis in which we are. This lasts at least ten years. I wished, these would be only ten years. This crisis will last at least thirty years. So there will be during the next thirty years in Gers no reforestations? It seems in such a way. But they have to be made, because it belongs to the most urgent duties of this country. There is even the opportunity of the aid of EU funds. One must apply for the money with PRODER. But in addition it requires the political intention. Who has a very right vision for the forest here in our region that is the civil management in Porto under Dr. Isabel Santos who never becomes tired to complain over and over again that there is no forest here in the district of Porto. Of course she speaks only in behalf of this district, and in particular of natural forest, because it is from an economic point of view nonsense that there is in the north a lot of furniture industry which must import their wood. Never was there in Portugal planner's spirit, and if there was some, he fell apart for pine and eucalyptus. It lies completely in the national interest to have oaks to produce wood. To afforest Gers, it requires millions, I know. But what is this on the edge of thousands kilometres of highway?
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only if there is the approval from Lisbon. So there is the possibility to get money for it from EU fonds? There is PRODER, the fund for agriculture, fishery and forestry. It lies in the hands of the Portuguese government, whichever, to negotiate with Brussels. Certainties, investments in the public forest or state forest, like in the case of Gers, are much better for the state, because later they pay for the seeds. The priority should lie on natural forest, because he is worthwhile eighty years later, however, then above all still Portugal will be here. It would be better used money, as that which is given on agricultural projects without any interest. Some of them are given up after two or three years, how in that scandalous case of the greenhouses on the coast of Alentejo. A known French subject used there one million or more from EU fund, disappeared and left behind everything broken and desolate. There are even more of such cases. With absolute sureness the European Community has funds for emergency situations like the present one. Then this also becomes a question of confidence. Now the state lies down, until Christmas nothing at all functions, just as in the national park. Which solution is there? To organise money through NGOs like Quercus and together with other environmental groups motivate the people, to afforest the national park? This is impossible. At first, Quercus has no organisation, no appliance for such an operation, that includes thousands hectares. To afforest everything what has burnt, costs millions. As already said, one can apply from fund of the EU. However, they will require the submission of applications, proofs of the possession relations and land use. Therefore, Quercus could never do this, because for that they would need the permission of the national park, and he would have great difficulties to permit something to others what is actually his duty. The reforestisation of the whole national park is a mission which lies in his hands and in the political intention. The park management can promote such a project
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Together with my wife I founded the movement torched earth. We work together with forest experts from Germany and other experts in this field, people with many ideas and strong intention to contribute to the improvement of the wretched situation. What do you think to establish a round table which everybody assembles: The park management, politicians, experts, representatives of the local residents, to discuss these questions and look for solutions? I think, this is a very good idea. The more take up this subject, the better. I think that up to now very few people realise what happens. Only a few look at these mountain slopes of Vilarinho das Furnas and start to think about what they see. Only a handful of people. It is necessary to indicate this, to speak of erosion, because this is the moment to fight against the problem. Otherwise only naked hills and rocks will remain to us with half-dozen herbs as it is quite presently around the Serra Amarela. It is clear if we look at the history of the forest in Portugal, and we go back to the seventeenth and eighteenth century, we see our mountains already in the same state, in the nude and rocky. Then there was an extensive reforestation, beginning in 1805, based exclusively on pines, and as a consequence we have forest fires. What we needed in the beginning of the nineteenth century, was wood. There was no perspective for the ecological importance of the woods, although there was already some reflexion. However, the preoccupation was basically of purely economic nature: To produce wood, namely fast. Firewood was needed and wood for the construction, Therfore was placed on the pine, because she permits the precipitation already after thirty years. Gers was completely forested, with some experience in some locations with other species, however, at least with the intention, to maintain forests like the Mata de Albergaria, Mata de Cabril etc.

A large part of the Mata de Cabril burnt last year. Yes and also some years before she already burnt. But as I already said, now we loses the work which was made by the forestry commission and the people for many years; better or worse, however, it was done, and now everything disappears. The forestry commission itself was dismembered and disintegrated and, in addition, we live in the situation that the whole country stands still until December. Everything decides on account of an election result. If the same party wins, there will be no big changes. Wins the PSD, it will reorganise of course the whole state in their manner, will anew name the directors of the whole and all the others at the lower levels, and if this happens, that claims two, three farther years of the reorganisation of the country. There through we stagger since the 25th of April. Manege free for the nomination of Manuel, what is followed by the nomination of Joachim who substitutes Manuel, and so forth. It is obvious, that if somebody takes over the job of his predecessor, he needs the sam time for the training. In Portugal we change the direction, services, parks, everything and still even more, as somebody would change the shirt and under it everything remains the same. I see at our neighbours, in Spain and France, people in the technical leadership positions which I know since

eternity. None of the Spanish political leaders it comes to the mind, to exchange the manager of a nature reserve, only because the government changes. It takes years to train a capable manager. In Portugal the manager of the national park changes practically all four years. The people in Gers say, this is a political job, nothing else. It is exactly this, but it should not be this. Of course there is a political component, but a technician must be above all an expert. He gets political demands from the government, but he should not be a politician.

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The present director is an economist. It is this cycle from which the national park suffers like the whole country. Lacking or basically wrong planning, missing restructuring, lack of resources and their wrong use. Some years ago the park began to redevelop sewage, I do not know why, because there was not a lot to act. A minister, I already do not remind her name, made a visit in every village, and it was the park which financed hurrying ahead the sewage disposal. There is a national agency which was already liquidated, thats why someone can openly speak of her, the national environment institute which financed the reconstruction of that chapel which is situated on the foot of the shopping centre Bom Sucesso in Porto. Can you believe this? I am very pessimistic, I think that Portugal stucks in a dead end. And whom we have to cure the illness from which we suffer, are those which they caused. Both alternatives which we have for the government are identical to themselves. Only, that now other groups want to come closer to the pots. It is not worthwhile to throw out to the window money for the elections. This is a country without hope. Everything what is a productive, break down, and without production there is no money. It requires new ideas. But the ideas are there, since the French revolution. We need people who read, people that are not spiritual illiterates. It is necessary to read a little, to study a little history, economy, philosophy etc. It is investigated everything, with the exception of the ignorance. Just now I do not remember which writer said: As I was born, it was already known, in which manner the world is to be saved. Is missing only to save her. It is true, everything is known. We know, what must be done in Gers, this is a technical and human task with financial support from the funds of the EU, and it remains merely to do so. In the national park there is a problem with the reforestation because he has
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no more nursery gardens. That existed were closed, and the few remained raise mainly pines. If somebody wanted to buy 10.000 oak plants at this moment, he would not get them in Portugal, I am sure. Then they launch these absurd campaigns like the enterprise of Salvador Caetano: Buy a Toyota and you plant a tree, and then they give 50 cents by the purchase of a car. Do they believe, it is proper to play around with such serious matters? Quercus has a reforestation project, called create woods. Two employees go by their cars from Lisbon up and down the country, and dig up volunteers with whom they plant trees. At least, they make cultivations, however, but then they are left to themselves. Exactly, It is not enough to plant; afterwards you have to accompany grooming the plantation. Therefore, I always say, that it is essential to include the people of the region. What still happens everywhere is alien work. Precisely, you are completely right. At the beginning of the big reforestations in the beginning of the nineteenth century when the forestry commission began to take commons etc., how they won the support of the local residents? They started to give them work. I remember S. Jacinto. Before it became a nature reserve, it was a small state forest of 700 hectares. The forester always had twelve people under contract who worked for him. In a village of 200 residents to have twelve people under contract has big weigh. The forestry commission of Gers has occupied in the high time of the reforestation thousands of people at the same time. It is clear if they go to Campo de Gers and contract hundred people, they have conquered the population. Now these are enterprises which solicits for upcoming works, like that by the way noted questionable cleaning of the forests, and employ for low payment workers from India, Brazil or Romania. Of course these companies are more competitive, but again this is alienwork, and nobody has an idea what hap-

pens. The director of the national park, Lagdios Domingos, said to me during an interview, that the park had searched workers from the region, but have been nobody willing to do this hard work, therefore they had been forced to hire foreigners. As I told this the local residents, they protested against this lie and were badly outraged. They say unanimously that the national park does not exist any more, that he is dead; and we heard weighty voices saying, they would go to Braga and make an end with the administration department. It is true that there are no more foresters, no guards, nothing. When I took part in the reforestation, I got to know a forest ranger who said, that he must live constantly with the fear to lose his job. At this moment everything is possible, and it is the worst time to get us hearing. Without this expresses my political approach, I must say: The best what could happen to us is, that Scrates again wins the elections. It would be the lesser of two evils and at least we avoid thus the long lasting transition, until everything starts again. If this takes place, it could be that things work again, if not it becomes awful. On the last Friday I took part in a meeting with the general secretariat of the forests in the civil management of the district of Porto. I did not know exactly what I had to do with this; possibly he was mistaken in the calendar. He announced the measures which should be seized for the next season for the prevention of forest fires and said, he had prepared a rank of proceedings, however because we would have a temporary government, he could not carry out them as announced, it would be already impossible. And this is our state! What he had to announce, were additional proceedings to fight against forest fires, however what interests us, are not announcements by means, but to end with the fires. And to make end up with the fires, it requires above all a forest planning with new orientation. Started with the tree species, with the planning and the dealings with the people. We should no more feed to the interest in
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arson, because this interest often comes from the people and the Mega industry of the fire which needs to nourish herself further. If we reduce the gigantic money supplies which are used every year to the fire fighting, possibly in a few years only leftovers from these fires remained. Forest fires are not only disastrous by the loss of wood, but also by destruction by erosion and by the emission of CO2 caused in the atmosphere. 75% of the annually through forest fires released amount of CO2 above Europe, about one million tonnes, originates from Portugal, as Quercus disclose. It is necessary to fix the complete forest; however, this is at nobody with decision-making power in view or even in the skyline. Then again there are the pictures of the fire which deliver annually excellent pictures on television and in the magazines. Which advantage had the fight of that fire in Gers of the last summer if afterwards nothing happens for the reforestation? It would be better to let burn everything, and the problem would be solved. The situation is very different from that what happens on the other side of the border in Spain? There everything has another dimension. I remember how I came with an engineer of the national park to Portela de Homen and we saw near on the border how a fire broke out. At that time there were still fire brigades of the park and with a transceiver we gave alarm. As a result there appeared a very old vehicle which expelled smoke in all directions with half a dozen men. In the meantime, Spanish firefighters stood on the other side of the border and observed what happens. As soon as they saw that the fire was about to spread out to Spain, they came with their fire engine to the Portuguese area, extinguished the fire and left again. So the Spaniards work differently. There was another example two years ago when I saw a huge fire on the Spanish side near the nature reserve of Marvo which was fought immediately and was extinguished. In the next year the mountain was already afforested.
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A german forest engineer and friend of us visited with me and a group of forest students the Serra de Valongo and they was baffled about what they saw. Only neglected eucalyptus wood, everywhere garbage etc. What would be to be done there to change this alarming scenery? The Serra de Valongo is one of the most complicated cases of which we can speak. It is a small area which has hundreds of owners. Who persuaded the owners to plant eucalyptus there everywhere? This happened in Portugal during the seventies with the expansion of the cellulose industry, of the wooden economy and the eucalyptus. The major factories like Soporcell, Portucell etc., started to lease land everywhere in Valongo for some twenty years. Because the majority of the owners had left their land lie fallow, it was leased. For those which did not want to lease I do not know why, burnt the land. Who knows, why. . . ***? Of course, this way the whole Serra de Valongo became eukalyptised. To solve the problem of Valongo, S.Justa and Castial, it requires a mega operation, because the owners already dont want to know anything more about it. They get money for their land? Those which have leased their land to the big companies, yes, others have given up everything. What would be the only right thing for these mountains is that they become the regional nature reserve of Porto. Since the fortiesis talking about, however, nobody does anything. These mountains should be taken over from the city administration of Porto, because it lies in their interest, not in that from Valongo or other surrounding towns. The mayor of Porto is for everybody obviously interested only in streets and cars and has no any interest in nature conservation. Recently he let in the former camp Prelada, a fairly large area, cut down the trees - to convert it into a parking lot instead to preserve a city Park!

Lack of sensitivity. But then, arrange in a hurry some thousand euros for small campaigns where we plant some trees because there is the day, or the hour, or the minute of the tree and one can appear in front of the cameras. Such campaigns use more money for propaganda than for cultivatian. It is evident that these regional leaders have never gone for a walk in those mountains. What can one expect from them? We can only defend what we also know. I do not see during the next years in Portugal, that there are people who could make these decisions of which we have spoken. We finish the conversation very pessimistically. So it is. However, to be quite sincerely, I do not see any glimmer of hope. I thank you for this instructive conversation.

Poking in the ashes

Cold ashes over burned forest The cloudy eyes of tears I saw the light in a lost paradise Sitting on the veranda of the caf in the road curve in Covide, Gers, my usual spot, the green mountains in sight, it came to my mind the rst time I came here nine years ago. The valley above Terras de Bouro was covered by clouds of smoke. I asked people around me who had set the re. Some smiles and shrugs were the answer. Upon the mountains I found a hill completely charred. Today I know that there was burnt down hard bushes, usual habits of these grazing areas. Time later on the mountain top despite rain a pastor burned around him the bush, leaving behind a trail of re and ashes. Under the umbrella he stared fascinated at the re that ignited. Seeing me arrive, he wanted to leave, but then he hesitated, waited for me and told me, it was to frighten the wolves. The previous day they had eaten her two goats and from them remained only the bells. Mister George opened the bag and showed me two empty cups of yogurt. I'm not like all the others who throw rubbish at the oor. I'm green here. I keep everything and at home I put it in the trash. This time I asked in the caf, who put the huge re in Calcednia. The owner of the cafe said that some people think, that were the loggers. The trees must be felled and so they are cheaper. A man in front of me interferes, saying that this year it could be because of revenge against the national park. How and why that? I asked. They prohibit everything. We cannot take rewood, cleaning the forest and to build what is ours. These mountains belong to us, dammed! Now there have room for a replanting project. A few days later in his patrol car saw him knock
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* EDP: Energias de Portugal; one of the largest electricity producers of Europe. ** 1971: Odd coincidence, that in the same year the Peneda-Geres National Park was founded and in this way the two events remain in the collective memory knotted together. *** The history of the Portuguese forest fires has much to do with the prescribed fires not only in the Serra de Valongo in the seventies, as the statistics clearly demonstrated. They have become, once introduced, an obsession, a kind of bad habit.

down a road looking at the burned forest. For my part I noticed, during the hours of sunset, the colours of Portugal. At roadside ferns half dark green and half orange, because we enter the autumn, the pine two-thirds were painted in roasted orange, being burned and the top still green. But now we have added a different colour: black background! The man sitting opposite me is slim, alive with a charming smile at the end of his fties, wearing a simple shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Why there are in Portugal so many res in the summer? I asked him. He took the chairs into the tree shadow, because that day the Valley of Terras de Bouro was hot. You better sit down because this is going to be a long turn. I have to start from the beginning,says the commander of the reghters, sr. Jose Dias, leaning on the table. Because everything has changed. Everything has changed and not for the better. The people abandoned their lands, were to other countries or major cities, seeking a better life. Were only old people and those who had no legs to walk. When they come back, nothing holds them back to earth. Nobody, except people like you and me, walk through the hills. Because of the res have no animals and livestock is scarce. It also changed the nature of our development as a result unconscionable. This year we had six heat waves this summer were only three. I come to be afraid of own nature with her big disasters. The great enemy is the wind from the east. If he arrives, we are on red alert. Thunderstorms with strong dry lightning that ignite the dry forest, full of fuel. These days we talk a lot about the cleaning of the woods. An idea that comes from Central Europe, particularly Germany, where are certainly well-controlled forests. But it is forgotten that the climate here and nature is quite different, Mediterranean , much wilder. Exactly, everything grows booming during the winter, but dries quickly in the summer There is no chance, no. We see everything clear when a re is fought with helicopters or airplanes. Arrive, pour water and go away. Extinguished the
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re, but the evening is rekindled, sometimes even stronger. In the underground roots and all that fuel is still burning. Just an animal make a little hole to breathe, Just an animal make a little hole to breathe, a root or a blunt heavy footprint of an animal and re emerges. But of course, the rst enemy yet remains the hand of man. Often out of ignorance or negligence, but they are always criminal acts. In the campsite Cerdeira some of the employees told me that the re in Vilarinho das Furnas had been made by a tourist angry at being charged money to enter there. It's a lie. It was very crowded and the people even tried to extinguish the re. But it was impossible. It started directly in the input grid, on the side of the dam. The re leaped to the mountain, ate all up and when we arrived half an hour later he was burning up there. Then split into two. To the left has moved beyond Brufe and right up to the forest and Cabril Soajo. In the old village of Vilarinho das Furnas re came from the top down and then we can defend the green space of old oaks. On top of the mountain yellow can barely reach the ground is very hard for our cars. But defending the forest beneath the antennas and a large part of the forest Cabril. And at Calcednia? I heard that this re was set because of revenge against the national park. This re was set, with absolute certainty. Why I do not know. It started at ve different points simultaneously. Then it expanded to the left until Junceda and right up to Caldas do Gers, almost entering the village, frightening the population. The extent of this re was caused by several errors. Just one small example: a biologist forbade me to cut a tree that was blocking our passage. I tried to make her understand, that it was better to sacrice a tree, than let burn hundreds or thousands. She did not understand. I waited until she was gone and ordered the cutting. When she arrived later, shouting and asking me who was responsible for the drop, I just told her, 'wants to complain? We put out the re here or not? We did, but an error occurred even worse, for that I was not re

sponsible. After a major re people have to go and put out the re that still burns beneath the ground. At the street just one guard had been keeping surveillance; because all corporations were rushed to Caldas do Geres. I did not really enjoy the atmosphere that only served to confuse and make even more tension and nervousness. Journalists, the television, the executives of the town and county, the whole circus was there assembled. When the guard saw the ames emerge and leaping the road, he gave alarm. But when reghters nally arrived, it was already too late. I was stuck with my men and women in another ght and could not put it down. I like working with my small team. With eight, ten or thirteen reghters and two cars sometimes we get better results than others with fty or a hundred men. We all know each other, everybody know his duties and there is great condence and teamwork. I have not lost any of my reghters. We have cars with twenty years, our most important car there is this small and very achievable. We cannot always ght with the force of nature. Sometimes we have to accept and use it to defeat it. When the ames emerge as a wall in front of us we have to run away and wait in another room where we can ght them. We must always be smarter than the re. I am always careful and watch it constantly goes much longer time. How the winds are owing in the reservoir? The morning wind is a wind that falls from the hills, bumps on the surface of the water and goes in the direction from which she runs and bumps into the wall of the dam. Ali becomes a whirlwind, what I call crazy winds. This is exactly what happened in Vilarinho das Furnas and made a small ame at the edge of the water to become a hell - two hours later with forty degrees in the shade. Sometimes the re comes when least expected. I've been at war in Angola, in one of the worst areas, diamonds and gold and most of the time did not know with whom we fought, who was our enemy, and whence he came. Only after twenty April 5 saw those pictures, those faces, and knew that they were not monsters, sometimes women and children. The re also has a thousand faces, always different.

Do you think the park, the pride of us all, is in danger? Who created the park? The people who lived there with the animals and the nature. This trinity has been disturbed and now everything is out of balance. I live in the town of Gers and the half of my yard belongs to me and the other half is integrated into the park, but I do not see any difference in this division! A major problem arises with the lack of resources and personnel. Currently work on it less than 10% of the people in the past. Another problem are that biologists, how believe they can solve everything with prohibitions in this way are losing the support and goodwill of the population. Would they really not need? In the end, much bureaucracy and clutter. In my opinion a major problem regarding to forest res is the lack of justice. Nobody knows who are the guilty and how they will be punished. About the arson at Chalcedon has any information on who did it? That's with the SEPNA, the Greens*. Our purpose is to ght res without caring about the criminal details. In the police station I asked about this department and was referred to a very polite man who led me into his small ofce. He was about thirty, very correct and serious. As I introduced myself, he took notes, and remained for some time distant. Mr. Jorge Soares, unlike the re in Vilarinho das Furnas, the re in Calcednia was put, as I was informed by the commander of the reghters, Joseph Dias. You already have evidence and suspects? There he asked me if I know this mountains. Realizing my passion and how much I've traveled to, his attitude changed, became more open. In Vilarinho already I can conrm that it was negligent, in Calcednia we know it was arson, but I cannot tell you details, it is delivered to the judicial police. We did our investigations, interrogate witnesses, we write our report and sent to judicial police in Braga. And you will know the ndings? In principle not.
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I nd it strange, that you do the fundamental work and are not being informed of the results. About the res the whole society is suffering by lack of information and it is starting to happen here. This raises suspicions without evidence, assumptions and hearsay. Is it possible for journalists to follow and accompany the whole process until the trial? Yes, absolutely! I even agree that this processes must have full clarity in the information to the public. If the inhabitants of these zones would form vigilante groups with legal rights and support of GNR, you dont think it would be a good idea? It was the rst time that he smiled: In my opinion is that a very interesting idea. Any ideas that help to avoid this type of disaster are welcome. I have noticed that there is no sufcient monitoring in the park. Mr. Dias says it's for lack of funds and mismanagement. The park no longer exists! Still there are watchtowers, but without guards, the information desks are closed and the Mr. Director resides in Braga and there is thirst. How can a park this large size be directed so far? Do you think it makes sense to go to Braga and talk to him? Surely that makes sense. Please go there, ask all this questions youve done to me and then come back to tell me the answers. To someone like me, nobody will respond. The last sentence I will pass to the voice of Dona Rosa, a resident of Campo de Geres and former inhabitant of the village of Vilarinho das Furnas: Yesterday I was in Soajo and was impressed. All burned off, up until the pain. Who put that re can be proud, because he did an extraordinary job.

* SEPNA: Servio de Proteco da Natureza e do Ambiente - Service for the protection of nature and environment. Their uniforms have green markings.

After the re means before the re?

The pastor Manuel with his flock of sheep on top on the mountains of Venda Nova in the district of Montalegre, said me: We had to flee before the great fire some days ago. He makes a vague gesture to the left in the direction of forest. His face was depressed, he softly spoke. Here the people suspect a young couple, however, I do not believe in it. I think, these are the boys with their terrain motorbikes. Youngsters without relation with the earth. After some time I was found lost in the black forest and found the enclosure and Manuels house. I put him to myself before with his sheepdog and his sheeps, exactly there, in their lively colours as installed in the somberly plain background. A strong picture. I roved through the charred scenery one and a half hours, before I found the way back to the life which heard singing birds again and the voice of the wind in the pines. In Paredes, a small desolate village, Mr. Jorge said me: This is a civil war in which the victims have no arms. Some days ago I was in Geres and came back shatteredly. I had to stop the carriage because of an intensive fire and saw how a school broke fawns loud from it, frightens without their mothers. However, the most awful was to see how they stopped and turned round to run again in the fire. I never will this forgets. What we need are to no farther fire-fighting airplanes from France, Spain, I do not know where from We need laws which forbid that burnt land can be sold. We need an effective criminal investigation department and an effective justice. Therefore we need a mindful government. And above all: Agricultural formation and education for the youth, revival and repopulating the villages. Here there is a lot of desolate land and a lot of work to do.

Do we really need a sociology of the fire, how did an environmentalist demand? Do we not know just too well in which society we live? In a quiet society, close-mouthed and silently, in an immobile society, anxiously, pushed in the corner, in a very particular society in which one deals merely with private matters. Somebody said that every people have the government which it deserves. However, the truth is that the fish from the head starts to stink. A government which is absent in times of the danger because of her untouchable holidays, emit merely worthless and absurd announcements is worthy of our rejection. And we what we will do? Do we stop with crossed arms and lowered head, the eyes well protected by sunglasses ? Does mean after the fire furthermore before the fire? The third power, the journalists, authors, photographers must lend those that person their voice which know how to speak very well, but are not heard. They must bother the responsible persons with direct questions and consist on concrete answers. Here remains a question to the scientists: Is it possible to calculate the CO2-emission in the atmosphere which is caused by the fires? This is would be a case which should be punished by the European Commission. I think, it is urgently necessary to bring to life a civil movement which collects informations, witness's reports and suggestions, to fight against this plague of our days and this country in which we live. Vila Nova de Gaia, August, 2010

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Without mercy
The dream of reason gives birth to monsters During these days I hear these words often, spoken in connection with the arsons. If I get one of these crossbreeds, I will kill him, definitely, says my grocer, an otherwise really quiet type. And if it was one of Your relatives? I also kill him, merciless. I must confess, that also me quite such wishes seizes if I saw the destruction, the end of the beauty, the charm, and to me the awful stench of the middle of nowhere wafted. torched earth, this maniac dream of Hitler, becomes he now year after year, slowly indeed, reality? A painful, outrageous thought. Those which kindle the fires act pitilessly and, therefore, earn no mercy. However, we, the victims earn her. The arsonists must be sentenced and be punished, with our participation, wants to say, we have the right on information during the whole trial. Only then we have the opportunity to understand what goes on and to put questions. The responsible persons must understand that the right on information is a basic democratic right in this matter which touches the society as a whole. Till this day we must suffer from his absence and are forced to demand it. And it helps in nothing if the Minister of the Interior announces before the fire front that we already have sufficient laws for arson. Laws which are not applied and enforced equal permits. The capital punishment lies beyond our reach, the democratic constitution forbids it with good reason. We should not call ghosts whom nobody can control, exaggerations and the abuse are already waiting. This wish results merely the feeling of the helplessness and has a much stronger relation with the destruction than we suggest. Youngsters, lost in the labyrinth of modern times, have the same feeling of the helplessness. And feel the destruction around them20

selves certainly. The new building blocks which suddenly rise like termite constructions before us and wear names like pinewood of the Douro, gardens of Arrbida, green hills and so forth make me pensive. On the one hand they refer to the extinguished, on the other hand, they give a discreet instruction in the direction of the development which we suffer topically. Not to speak of the latest and biggest scandal: of the construction of a monstrous shopping centre in a protected green zone, a water catchment area, and all accompanying facts. The planners, their assistants, hidden or known, the makers remained not only at liberty, but, beyond it, got rich what excuses everything for many. This case may as others become white-washed in public, however, in the darkness of the rumours and the collective subconscious he will remain unforgotten. Nevertheless, certain gestures of disgust and disintegration, how to pass a wood on the highway and to throw out a scorching cigarette from the window with big laughter, as I have already experienced, are little understandable and deserve also denouncement. Not to forget the garbage heaps which are left behind regularly at the edges of the forests. The purge must be much bigger, there is even more to clean, than the forests. Basically, as a citizens, we are jointly responsible!

Vila Nova de Gaia, September, 2010

The reservoir of Vialrinho das Furnas, March 2011. In the opposite green valley until the middle of the lake was the village..

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To learn the forest

Thoughts about Masanobu Fukuoka
Today many people are worry about drying up by old cash country and the loss of the vegetation worldwide, but there is no doubt, that the human civilization and her inappropriate methods of the grain cultivation which originated from the arrogance of the man are mainly responsibly for this global plight.

here they stood, tall, full of dark berries and fragrantly. I saw a sleeping fox, leant in his bed on a pine trunk, saw big hares and now and again roe deers. These were the pinewoods of her childhood, not mine. She had been born before the war, I after him. 2. It had taken me on a journey away far out, near to the Chinese and Butanes border in the north of India, in the city of Tawang. Somewhere very near the Himalayas began. Located at 3,000 m altitude, she was surrounded by high peaks. On a walk I roved through an old forest, which dark trees swung their heavy, with fern, moss and flowers covered arms upward strangely crooked. It was a forest which gives me respect, a childish emotion between admiration and light shudder. Abruptly he ended, the execrated forest. I stepped out on something which seemed to be a clearing, however, none was, also no firebreak. The wood ended as pulled with the ruler, ended simply completely, was finished. There was no transition from one world to the other and no connection between them. The farther I went away from the wood to be able to estimate what happened here, the smaller he became, already after few steps it was like to look through reverse binoculars, until he had completely disappeared from my view and left a violently aching emptiness. We probably feel tempted everybody to be reasonable in face of such unfathomable incidents. However, it is sure that nothing, whatever may originate here or grow again, can substitute what was destroyed once so completely and had been perfect in itself. 3. In Meghalaya, some weeks later and some hundred kilometers farther to the south, I met the holy forests. They belong to every village, are sometimes smaller, sometimes big, and in them nothing may be destroyed, no leaf picked, no branch cut off. These forests were created several hundred years ago and surrounded with a whole swing of rules and myths as with an invisible protec-

1. I knew the pinewoods of Brandenburg, Germany since my childhood, I thought. At least I had gone through them, had smelled their resin, seen their swinging treetops, and heard the wind how he played in them. One day asked me a friend, the poet Helga Novak, to go with her to Yugoslavia. This was some years before the war, and the country with the national miscellany on the powder keg still was called in such a way. We passed the border control in Wannsee with its endless traffic jams, pointless questions (Do you have weapons, transceivers, ammunition?) and drove finally through the Brandenburg woods. It was a hot summer day; the windows were far wound down right and left. Suddenly Helga squealed beside me: These are my forests! The forests of my childhood! Later I visited her in Poland where she had been settled in the meantime, above all because of the forests, as she said. These were pinewoods like in Brandenburg with some essential differences. I had never before seen a spotted woodpecker, here, however, I heard hammering him and saw the shy bird also, and not only one. I had never before seen juniper shrubs in the forest, everywhere
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tive fence. In each of these forests lives a tiger's spirit who is an embodied mind of a forefather and is guarded by his companion, a mythical as well as real and toxic mountain cobra. One could see through some these holy forests, in a village lay the trunks of felled trees which were not sold merely and were taken away because the Indian government forbade the trade with high-grade timbers, finally. 4. In the valleys of Kashmir the deforestation and the resulting erosion here was progressed so far that whole slopes with meadows, houses and fields slipped down in to the abyss. Also this I saw with own eyes. There it were these the huge Himalayas cedars which had been felled massively by Indian companies. 5. To stand in a desert and to make itself suddenly deliberate that rain simply does not fall from the sky, already presupposes a particular spiritual effort which feeds itself from a deeper lying interest and connection like the evaporating humidity. There is a peremptorily stone drawing from the mountains of the Tras-os-Montes in Portugal which shows that the water cycle was already known since primeval times. However, the extreme space is a desert is the suitable place to learn anew this elementary knowledge which is buried in the extreme normality of a completely industrialized everyday life.

In a holy forest,f Meghamaya 1997

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A message
Spiegel-online, 30. May 2011 London - The emission of harmful greenhouse gases has reached a record high last year. According to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) global carbon dioxide emissions increased by a total of 1.6 gigatons in 2010. That was the highest ever increase since the beginning of the measurements. Overall, the CO2 emission in recent years have amounted to 30.6 gigatons worldwide. This was an increase of almost five percent over the previous record year of 2008, when 29.3 gigatons had been expelled. 44 percent of emissions in the past year came from the IEA coal combustion, 36 percent of oil use and 20 percent of natural gas. Between 2008 and 2009, emissions were initially decreased slightly, which investigators traced mainly to the global economic crisis. Because of the economic recovery that began in 2010 they had expected a slight increase but not with such a dramatic upward trend. I am extremely worried. These are the worst news about climate, said IEA chief economist Fatih Birol the Guardian. It is an extraordinary challenge, if we want to achieve that goal and still keep global warming below two degrees.

The prospect darkens

Scientists believe that warming of more than two degrees have dangerous consequences for the world economy and could lead to an increase in extreme weather phenomena. Birol said, however, reaching the two-degree target was probably just a nice utopia. The prospect darkened, said the economist. That is the message of these numbers. According to the calculations of the IEA, emissions from energy generation by 2020 should not be over 32 gigatons per year. If the emissions increase in 2011 but just as fast as in 2010, the critical limit could be reached nine years sooner than planned. That would make it virtually impossible to keep global warming to a manageable level. The British economist Nicholas Stern, who made headlines in 2006 about the after him named report about the looming costs of climate change headlines, was no less concerned than Birol. The new IEA figures show that the world is almost on a business as usual path. In climate policy jargon that stands for a scenario in which virtually nothing done about the escalating greenhouse gas emissions. According to forecasts by the UN climate council IPCC means that a 50 percent chance that global average temperature rises by 2100 to more than four degrees. The result would be disastrous, warns Stern. Such a warming would threaten the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world, leading to mass migration and conflicts. Anyone in his right mind would try to reduce this risk dramatically.

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Confront the crisis

Project Reforestation of the Serra Amarela
With 10,000 ha of forest we can call the rain Masanobu Fukuoka

2.

The method

1.

Preamble

The Serra Amarela in the north of Portugal, integral part of the national park Peneda-Gers, is after the disastrous fires of the summer, 2010 completely without trees and revealed to the erosion defencelessly. Her precipitous slopes and largely also her heights are pasture-economically not useable in her present condition. She rises behind the reservoir of Vilarinho the Furnas whose quantity of water decreases in every summer drastically. The Portuguese energy producer EDP has already signalled interest in a reforestation and wil be an important partner of the presented project. The forest creation in the Serra Amarela is an ideal pilot project which farther reforestations should follow in the huge dry and stony zones in Geres as well as in other mountains. The movement torched earth has begun in last autumn, still without any support, to collect acorns in the big extent and to plant them since March, 2011 in the few remained earth. In search of a less painful and more efficient way we pushed into the method of Masanobu Fukuoka, according to which tree-, shrub-, berryand herbal seed packed in Pellets or seedballs are sown.

The Pellets consist of a specific mixture of local earth, red clay and cellulose filings in which the seeds wait protected for the necessary environmental conditions to the germ. This brilliant method has Masanobu Fukuoka successfully applied in numerous threatened regions of the earth, in deserts and dry savannas like in Ethiopia and Somalia. The example most speaking for us which we want to adopt for the mountains of Gers is the forest creation in 1998 in the mountains of Arnissa, in the north of Greece. These mountains surround the thirdbiggest lake of Greece, Vegoritida, and were completely deforested at that time, stony and defencelessly exposed to erosion, very similar to those in the Serra Amarela. Year after year the water level of the lake sank and his surface had shrunk in the year of the forestation almost on half of his original expansion. Disasters occur whenever people try to improve nature and subject her to the strict, sole use of the human kind. The fishery on which traditionally 100 families lived was not possible any more, just as agriculture, because the soil had leached and silted up by over-fertilization. With the help of a group of locals were produced in cement mixers seedballs and spread out in the mountains. Each seedball contained between two and four seeds from different species, whereby a high biodiversity is of decisive importance for the success. Ideally is a variety of hundred different seeds, in the case of the forestation in Arnissa these were 25. A mixture of tree shrub-, herbal- and vegetable seed is to be used, this is the quickest way to the success. Peas, beans, salad and herbs function as a starter and donate the shoots shades and nourishment. The sowing happens during the whole spring and summer fully democratically by everybody who would like to participate in the joy to cause good in an simply manner: School children, travelers, tourists. And also
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elder people can be glad about the fact that they are released to laborious back aches causing bending down while planting. The leaders of the camping place Cerdeira and the youth hostel in Campo do Gers have already stated their great interest in the progress of the project. The Pellets or seedballs must not be watered and unfold their effect everywhere many seeds have problems to grow. The capsules prevent from blowing away by strong winds, hold the warmth and protect the seeds against rodents, insects and birds. The use of seedballs as a method of the restoration of natural habitat is innovative and exciting. Their mixture merely separate for three habitat zones is a basis for the creation of a natural forest. In the mountains around Arnissa a zone of 10,000 ha became wooded!

3.

Her adaptation for Gers

1. The treeless and without shrubs, stony and dry zone which occupies about 85% of the surface: There will be seeded different oaken species like Quercus faginea, Quercus robur, Quercus pyrenaica, Quercus pubescens, Quercus Ilex and Quercua petraea; sycamore, flour berry, wild pear), wild apple and apricot; shrubs like Kermes oak (Quercus coccifera), Ilex (Azevinho), red dogwood, broom moor (Calluna vulgaris), white heather(Erika), gorse (Ulex); berries like wild strawberry and herbs like white clover, dyer's camomile. 2. Humid- and water-bearing zones, in plateaus and valleys: There are sown silver willow, black poplar, black alder, the Portuguese wild cherry Prunus lusitanica, holly, wild pear and wild apple. 3. Pasture zones on the eastern plateau: There different sweet grass and tumbleweed will be sown. In the first years no preventive measures are necessary, after the second year are in zones with free living horses, deers and goat herds are to build simple wooden fences. This can happen in cooperation with the national park.

In Gers it is about the sowing of a natural forest with mainly indigenous broad-leaved trees. The political condition is the consent and the participation of the local residents. How the rain does not fall simply from the sky, sustained reforestation dependents on sustained, democratic decision-making and its democratic implementation. In September, 2011 in Gers will held an people's Assembly on which all pending issues are brought up for discussion in search or solutions. We, The Movement Torched earth, are integrated into the prearrangements and will introduce there our demanding, however, in comparison to all other conceivable methods lightweight project. Also the approval and logistic support of the management of the national park Peneda-Geres is necessary. We deal mainly with three different zones which require different seminal mixtures.
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4.

Te c h n i c a l c o n d i t i o n s

In Greece it was used for the reforestation of a surface of 10,000 ha the following materials) - except the seeds - to the production of the Pellets: 60 t of home earth, 10 t of red sound powder and 3 t of fine cellulose. Furthermore three or four cement mixers, water connection, tubes, spray nozzles, boxes, bags, workrooms and storerooms are required.

Text, photographs, design: Bernd Markowsky Contakt: bernardo.markowsky@gmail.com