Meeting with the Director-General of Forest Defence
On 23 April, a delegation from the Board of Directors of the Galician Forestry Association and its technical director held a meeting with the Director-General of Forest Defence, Manuel Francisco Gutiérrez, the first since his appointment.
At this meeting, several issues of concern to forest owners were addressed, such as the measurement of the 50-metre distance on secondary biomass management networks, which we believe should be measured from the façades of buildings rather than from the urban land boundary. However, it seems difficult to change this criterion due to its overlap with municipal competence.
It was also requested that the biomass management regulations be relaxed. It appears that the possibility of using management/non-management criteria instead of shrub height, density or biomass load as currently applied is being considered.
We also discussed grants for fire prevention, a matter of great concern to us. The Director-General announced that work is under way to publish generic guidelines to cover calls for four or five consecutive years, thereby streamlining the resolution of the annual calls which have suffered significant delays in recent years. He also indicated that this change is unlikely to take effect until next year.
AFG requested that the aid orders include funding for track maintenance and acacia control, as well as for work on natural conifer regeneration and low pruning. It was agreed to study the proposal and also to review the criteria so that large-scale forests are not always the beneficiaries at the expense of smaller ones.
The Director-General announced that the possibility of establishing a grant scheme for species changes in biomass management networks is being considered, particularly for stands with a understorey of deciduous broadleaves.
He also announced that pilot schemes are planned in the Baixo Miño, in collaboration with private communal neighborhood forests, to inform the public about how the firefighting system operates, self-protection measures, etc.
The AFG delegation also enquired about the status of the forthcoming Wildfire Prevention Act, which has been silent on for some time. The Director-General reported that work is under way, but there is still no scheduled date for its consideration. He did, however, indicate that they have no intention of holding any further consultations with the sector.
