At the end of last week, following a debate on forestry reforms, the government announced it would be banning the plantation of new areas of eucalyptus trees.
This drew sharp criticism from the paper and paste industries, the former of which, CELPA, the Association for Paper industries, said the ban is a “huge loss to the Portuguese economy,” as well as having “no technical or scientific basis.”
The association criticised the government’s decision to ban planting new areas of eucalyptus based on an “incorrect and preconceived idea”, which will “encourage abandonment and growth of scrubland and unused areas, and increase the risk of fires.”
However, in response to the criticism, the Ministry for the Environment has guaranteed it will continue to support the sectors, namely through the attribution of national and community funds for forest management.
It said last Friday, following the debate, that it in fact wants to “increase production and productivity of eucalyptus.”
“Firstly, the government, obviously, does not agree with [CELPA’s] declaration. Contrary to what has been said, the government intends to increase production and productivity of eucalyptus by allowing for new plantations in [existing] areas of greater production, and reducing areas of weaker production”, Agriculture Minister Capoulas Santos said, in comments to Lusa News Agency last Friday.
However, he explained that “the Government simultaneously intends to curb the expansion of the eucalyptus area” by banning new areas of plantation, as eucalyptus “has already become the dominant species in our forests, and increase the availability of raw material for the pulp industry.”
His office added that the pulp and paper industries are “fundamental to the national economy.”
Some 400,000 people are the owners or producers of forestry-related products in Portugal. Still, Portugal imports between 150 and 200 million euros of eucalyptus wood a year, which the national sector says is a “wealth that could be distributed among the millions of national producers and forest service providers.”