40 million euros still to be shared • The Agenda

ROME – Preventing forest fires: special issue of the Uncem Comunità Montagna magazine.

PREVENTING FOREST FIRES: UNCEM

Exit new issue of the Uncem magazine, Comunità Montagna, entirely dedicated to the prevention of forest fires. It can already be downloaded in PDF here: https://www.comunitatamontagna.eu/magazine/cm-1-incendi-la-prevention-that-we-need/ On the eve of the summer season, Uncem highlights how 40 million euros are still missing from the appeal, the last part of the resources allocated by the “Fire Decree” in September 2021. 40 million euros still have to be distributed by the Ministry of Cohesion to the territories. They were 100 million euros in total. 20 for the Fire Brigade and Forestry Carabinieri, 40 for the “internal areas”, through the 72 “pilot areas” identified in 2014. Resources to be spent for prevention – not for the active fight – to carry out serious and lasting operations on the territories, within the woods, capable of making us better.

FOR THE TERRITORIES

They write from Uncem: “We are fragile and weakened by too much inattention to our forest and pasture heritage. Which faces uncontrolled phenomena of wilderness, which is increasingly less managed and less and less used. If man leaves, as he is leaving, nature regains its spaces. Forests are increasing in Italy, 12 million hectares, and we are even less aware that this increase in forest is not entirely positive. It brings with it negative factors connected to the impoverishment of the soil and the roofs themselves. Which invade villages and houses, what has been left by increasingly urban-centered man. The risk of fires, such as landslides and instability, also increases due to this undeciphered and misunderstood proliferation of the forest, which is not planned and managed, the invasion of plant species, the contraction of the communities living in the rural Alpine and Apennine areas. There is a strong combination between abandonment and fragility, driven by climate change. Historically, those who lived in the mountains took specific care of their natural resources. Giving it sustainability, i.e. conservation and protection over time. The repeated emergencies dictated by the climate crisis in recent years require institutions and politicians to do more. In the summer of 2021 the fires in Calabria, Campania, Sicily and Sardinia stirred consciences and institutions. Thus the Fire Decree arrived. With 100 million and a series of operational indications. Penalties for arsonists are getting tougher, as if that were enough. And economic resources have been allocated. 40 million, the territories of the “internal areas” spent them in agreement with the Regions. Now there is 40 million euros left over. We cannot hold back 40 million euros for the prevention of forest fires for much longerthe.”

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