Thousands of people leaving their homes in helplessness and tears; protected forests, such as San Juan de la Peña, declared a natural site of national interest in 1920, threatened by flames; the regal bones of the first kings of Aragon rescued from the proximity of the fire in the imposing Romanesque monastery surrounded by the magical trees of San Juan de la Peña; the rescue teams, at the limit of their strength and risking their lives...
The flames wreak havoc this fateful summer, in the center, in the south, in the northeast, in all corners of Spain. As they did last year, as they will do next year if urgent measures are not taken now. Waiting for the next fire as if it were a curse will lead us to become a scorched country, as the mayor of the Huesca town of Santa Cruz de la Serós warned these days, fully affected by the terrible fire of the Peñas de Riglos: "The town is very bad, it is burning," she lamented on August 15, a holiday par excellence in the entire country and overshadowed by those who suffer the fires. The laws of Brussels and Madrid They generate helplessness. With great luck, the houses will remain. The rest of us have gone from being a medieval town to a town of ashes.
Are we really willing to let our natural environment, the future, work, homes and, in the worst case, the lives of so many affected by the fire burn in the bonfire of neglect, of political apathy, of bureaucracy, of the fight between powers? Is there no way for laws to be perceived as allies, not as an insurmountable barrier for those who live and give life to rural areas? The Forestry Law, enacted in 2003 for a country that is the second in Europe in tree mass, speaks of combining protection with development, progress and forestry and livestock activities; It highlights the necessary adaptation to the change that places us in a scenario of extreme warming, temperatures and droughts.
It is the responsibility of the administrations that its application – or its adaptation, if it is seen to be outdated – responds to that spirit and does not drown in obstacles and paperwork, leading to the abandonment of those who live in Spain that is not urban. It also contemplates the existence of the National Forestry Council, a consultative body of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, chaired by the minister and made up of representatives of the ministries, autonomous communities, industrial sector, unions and agricultural and livestock organizations, the University and environmental associations. Its mission is, in theory, to promote studies and monitor forestry programs, issue reports on state plans in the forestry sector, propose measures for green and sustainable management, draft an annual report on the situation of forests...
To read about these good intentions, of whose existence in practice there is hardly any news, to read while the mountains burn and the fire closes in on people, homes and heritage, is to cry. Do we know who, and in what way, and for what, is thinking about the forests, about the reconversion of forestry agents so that they can attend to management throughout the year under conditions and with adequate planning; in the transformation of weeds into biomass so that it is energy instead of fuel to feed monstrous fires?
