Portugal seeks EU funds for livestock grazing to prevent fires
Portugal’s Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries José Manuel Fernandes proposed at an informal meeting of ministers in Dublin that the EU budget should finance the grazing of goats, cattle and sheep in areas at high risk of wildfires. The animals would eat shrubs, reducing the amount of vegetation that can contribute to the spread of fire.
As Politico Europe reports, Portugal and some regions of Spain already run such programmes with national funding. Fernandes said that fire prevention is work for the benefit of the entire European Union and helps reduce carbon emissions.
Budget negotiations
The initiative is being discussed amid negotiations on the EU’s next long-term budget. Some countries are calling for cuts to spending on traditional areas, including cohesion policy and agriculture. At the same time, Fernandes and other ministers stress that support for the agricultural sector is needed to adapt the food system and rural areas to more extreme weather conditions.
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According to the Portuguese minister, 42% of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy is directed toward environmental goals. He also proposed using funds from the EU Emissions Trading System to support livestock grazing, noting that its resources are used to reduce emissions in the transport sector.
Drought and farm protection
European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen said that preparations of farms for future droughts need to be strengthened. Among the tasks, he named ensuring sufficient water for firefighting and irrigating fields during dry periods.
Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon, who is the negotiator for the member states, also hinted that he would like agriculture to be included in the European Commission’s future climate resilience framework, scheduled for October. Spain’s Minister of Agriculture Luis Planas called for increased EU funding to protect farms from drought and named crops developed using new gene-editing methods as one possible solution.
