Technicians of the European Interreg Sudoe REMAS project in collaboration with the Diputación de Valencia held the Forestry Policy Days "Monte Activo”, in which institutional leaders directly linked to climate change and fire prevention policies participated with a debate focused on the risk of CO2 emissions in forest fires and the management of these emissions to improve the capacity to accumulate carbon.

In this sense, the aim of the project coordinated by the Association of Forest Municipalities of the Comunitat Valenciana (AMUFOR) in collaboration with the Provincial Council, co-financed by the Interreg Sudoe programme through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), is to quantify the risk of carbon emissions contained in forest ecosystems after fires in order to propose measures to prevent such emissions, while including the risk in planning strategies and fire prevention plans at transnational level.

The conference was opened by the Deputy for Rural Development, Ramiro Rivera, who underlined the importance of “always remaining vigilant in the conservation of our forests and not ceasing to promote active policies from the institutions to improve everything within our reach through planning and prevention, which are the main tools at our disposal". Rivera was accompanied at the opening by Consuelo Alfonso, mayoress of Andilla and president of AMUFOR.

Conservation and compensation

The presentation by the technicians of the European project was followed by the round table, with the participation of the speakers via videoconference. It was coordinated by the professor of the Universitat Politècnica de València and expert in forest management José Vicente Oliver, with the participation of the General Director of Climate Change of the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Celsa Monrós, the General Director of Fire Prevention, Diego Marín, the Councillor for Agriculture and Environment of Llíria, Consuelo Morató, and the President of AMUFOR, Consuelo Alfonso.

The event raised awareness of the need for conservation and management of sinks, the risk of emissions from fires and the opportunity that carbon offsetting represents in terms of reducing the risk of forest fires. The need for public participation in this type of action was also highlighted.

However, the main objective of this conference was to learn about the different actions and initiatives that can be implemented from the political and social action at local, provincial, regional and European government levels to include the risk of emissions in the planning and management processes of forest fires.