Socioeconomic Impacts of Forest Fires upon Portugal: An Analysis for the Agricultural and Forestry Sectors

Vítor Martinho

doi:10.3390/su11020374

Abstract

Recent forest fire activity has resulted in several consequences across different geographic locations where both natural and socioeconomic conditions have promoted a favorable context for what has happened in recent years in a number of countries, including Portugal. As a result, it would be interesting to examine the implications of forest fire activity in terms of the socioeconomic dynamics and performance of the agroforestry sectors in the context of those verified in the Portuguese municipalities. For this purpose, data from Statistics on Portugal was considered for output and employment from the business sector related to agricultural and forestry activities, which were disaggregated at the municipality level, for the period 2008–2015. Data for the burnt area was also considered in order to assess the impact of forest fires. The data was analyzed using econometric models in panel data based on the Keynesian (Kaldor laws) and convergence (conditional approaches) theories. The results from the Keynesian approaches show that there are signs of increasing returns to scale in the Portuguese agroforestry sectors, where the burnt area increased employment growth in agricultural activities and decreased employment in the forestry sector. Forest fires seem to create favorable conditions for agricultural employment in Portuguese municipalities and the inverse occurs for forestry employment. Additionally, some signs of convergence were identified between Portuguese municipalities for agroforestry output and employment, as well for the burnt areas. However, signs of divergence (increasing returns to scale) from the Keynesian models seem to be stronger. On the other hand, the evidence of beta convergence for the burnt areas are stronger than those verified for other variables, showing that the impacts from forest fires are more transversal across the whole country (however not enough to have sigma convergence).

Highlights

Forest fires and their consequences came to be in several countries such as Portugal as a result of a set of factors related to the social, economic, environmental and natural contexts, which create favorable conditions or environments for these occurrences
This relationship was enlarged using a variable related to forest fire severity as a way of assessing the effect of forest fires on the socioeconomic dynamics of the Portuguese municipalities
One should highlight that the impact of forest fires on the Portuguese agroforestry dynamics and performance seems too moderate

Summary

Introduction

Forest fires and their consequences came to be in several countries such as Portugal as a result of a set of factors related to the social, economic, environmental and natural contexts, which create favorable conditions or environments for these occurrences. They are realities towards which everyone may contribute, in some way, in order to mitigate them. Damage caused by forest fires has increased over the last few decades across the globe [1] In these frameworks, the scientific community may and should bring contributions, namely through new approaches and insights that allow for the prevention of the negative consequences from forest fires and allow us to understand the several impacts after their occurrence. Policy instruments and related legislation are determinant tools for reducing the negative impacts of forest fires [3]

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Conclusion