Post-fire project – guidelines for 3 farms affected by the June 2017 wildfires

This document arises from the need to plan for the properties affected by the forest fires that occurred in early June 2017 in the municipalities of Castanheira de Pêra, Figueiró dos Vinhos, Góis, Pampilhosa da Serra, Pedrógão Grande, Penela and Sertã.

This fire is, to date, the largest forest fire that occurred in Portugal, having affected about 53,000 hectares (ICNF 19/06/2017), mostly areas of eucalyptus and maritime pine production, but also causing significant losses of human lives, housing, material and ecological goods.

Now, with large areas of burnt landscape (both private and public), it is urgent to minimize the future impacts of the fire, with the most worrying being soil erosion, and to think about how to plan and regenerate this landscape into a more resilient, productive, socially just and ecologically diverse one.

Terracrua Design, by invitation, proposes structural planning for three private properties affected by the fire. These are farms dedicated to self-sufficient food production, focusing on family-scale horticulture, agroforestry, and pastoralism.

Thus, this document proposes guidelines for action in landscapes affected by forest fires and their subsequent management (promoting forest prevention and maintenance without compromising ecosystems) and a structural planning of the proposed areas (access, hedgerows, water in the landscape, production areas (forestry and agriculture), and infrastructure network).

This document aims to be simple, intuitive, and easy to read, serving as a standard of action for any property that has suffered a fire or wants to prevent it.

Links to the 3 post-fire structural intervention projects:

Farm in Figueiró dos Vinhos: Link

Farm in Pedrógão Grande: Link

Farm in Góis: Link

Project, in *.pdf version, here:

And