PJ involves more inspectors in the investigation of forest fires

The Judicial Police (PJ) will involve new inspectors in operations research from forest fires. Pedro do Carmo, Deputy National Director of PJ of Coimbra, announced that the number amounted to tens and that the Judiciary "began a training in investigating Wildfires dolosos."

A national meeting behind closed doors of the PJ, February 26, in Coimbra, was to "implement the strategies" among the sectors that make up the police and articulá them with the regional departments of PJ and other units involved in the process .

Pedro do Carmo also announced that a new computer "geo-referenced" will allow access to databases that contain different types of information in real time, as the causes and perpetrators of the fires. Since the beginning of the year that PJ "has already begun the monitoring of people referenced" that can be perpetrators of fires.

The number of fires recorded in 2007 was 3653, corresponding to 31062 hectares of burnt area, according to the report of the committee to monitor the policy against forest fires. The document will be voted by the Parliament on Tuesday of next week.

Despite the area burnt be less than half of the previous year (75335 hectares), only in the last quarter of 2007 there were 2086 fires, more than the 519 that occurred in the first nine months of the year. According to the Institute of Conservation of nature and Biodiversity, burned 3042 hectares in the protected areas. The Nature Park Vale do Guadiana was a protected area most affected by the fire. The Minister of the Environment, Nunes Correia, said he was in this park that "were the most serious environmental consequences."

The socialist Horácio Antunes, responsible for the report, argues that the preventative patrols is one of the factors for the reduction of the area burnt. However, there are still "delays in measures to prevent structural, and problems in planning and protected areas," stressed.