Beja District has the 5th most expensive price in the country for cleaning forest land

High costs and a shortage of labor are indicated by land clearing professionals as the main reasons that lead to non-compliance in the management of fuel on forest land. The Beja district has the 5th highest average price per hour for land cleaning, at 20 euros. Value equal to that of the Viseu district.

According to a study by the sector’s Fixando platform, land cleaning services are most expensive in the Lisbon district (€33 per hour), followed by the districts of Santarém (€31), Setúbal (€29) and Faro ( €25).

This reality has been particularly evident in Santarém, the district with the highest number of non-compliances according to a statement from the Republican National Guard (GNR), where the average hourly price of €31 for land cleaning services contrasts with the national average of €20.

However, the GNR also revealed that, between 2019 and 2023, Castelo Branco, Braga, Coimbra and Aveiro followed as the districts with the highest number of non-compliances. On the other hand, Évora, Beja and Portalegre are those that recorded the least non-compliance in the cleaning of forest land.

The service contracting platform also reveals that in the first four months of the year, there was a 15% drop in demand for land cleaning services, compared to the same period last year.

Nuno Trindade, from Projecto Verde, explains that land cleaning is often very expensive in relation to its heritage value, which ends up leading to devaluation or even total abandonment by the owners. “When we consider rural land that is inherited, many of which are still undergoing legalization processes, there are owners who end up leaving them abandoned, and many of them do not have the financial resources to hire someone to clean the land”, he explains.

In addition to the economic issue, the shortage of qualified professionals and the lack of labor are also identified as determining factors for the inability of some owners to keep land clean.

According to Green Forest, a forestry company based in Aveiro, there are many areas where there simply are no professionals to carry out this type of work and owners do not have the capacity to carry out the necessary maintenance on their land.

“Faced with these challenges, it is essential to promote policies that encourage the training and availability of qualified labor, as well as measures that facilitate access to cleaning services at an affordable cost. Furthermore, it is important that authorities adopt a more comprehensive approach when applying coercive measures, considering not only the imposition of fines, but also raising awareness and supporting owners in the proper management of their land”, explains Alice Nunes, director of new Fixando business.

This year, the Government decided to extend the deadline for forest owners and producers to clean forests and land by another month. The deadline, which ended on April 30th, was extended until May 31st.