On June 6, 2025, the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança in Northern Portugal hosted the Final Seminar of the SAFER-LANDS project, developed by a team from the Centre for Applied Ecology of the School of Agriculture in the University of Lisbon (CEABN-ISA), in collaboration with the Federation of Baldios (BALADI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature from Portugal (WWF).
The event brought together researchers, technicians, local authorities, and community representatives to discuss solutions for managing baldios1 — community-owned lands with a long-standing tradition, especially in Northern and Central Portugal—in the face of growing wildfire risk and a complex legal framework.
The seminar presented the main results of this multidisciplinary initiative, which combined scientific research, participatory tools, and legislative proposals. A comprehensive wildfire risk assessment of baldios led to the creation of a national-scale hazard map. Case studies of Baldios Groups provided insights into various governance models and the strengths and weaknesses of current legislation.
The urgent need to reform the Forest Regime—a legal framework established in the early 20th century—was also underscored. While originally based on biophysical criteria such as slope and erosion susceptibility, its continued application in mountainous and coastal areas is now outdated and often ill-suited to local realities and evolving environmental challenges.
A major focus of the seminar was the role of Baldios Groups in wildfire prevention. Since 2020, 19 groups have been formed to manage these lands at the landscape level. Now entering its second phase, this project aims to consolidate existing groups and expand to new areas. Through forest management plans, land registry of the baldios and infrastructure improvements, these groups have significantly reduced fuel loads across tens of thousands of hectares. Investments have surpassed €10 million, with prescribed burning practices developed in close collaboration with communities and shepherds.
Another key topic was a stakeholder perception analysis conducted during the project’s first phase. Interviews showed that while Baldios Groups are seen as crucial for scaling operations and securing support, they also face major challenges, such as low community engagement, insufficient institutional cooperation, and burdensome certification procedures.
From an environmental standpoint, overlapping legal regimes—including the Baldios Law, Forest Regime, and Protected Area regulations—create confusion and limit active land management. Recommendations included revising legal frameworks, making responsible forest certification a baseline requirement, and implementing transparent payment schemes for ecosystem services.
One of the most innovative achievements of SAFER-LANDS was the development of a participatory fire risk mapping method. This approach combined historical fire data, fuels, and local knowledge to create actionable plans tailored to specific landscapes.
The seminar concluded with a unified message: strengthening institutional collaboration, updating outdated legislation, and actively involving communities are essential to achieving safer, more resilient, and socially fair community forests.
The CEABN-ISA team acknowledges funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the SAFER-LANDS project (reference PTDC/GES-AMB/0713/2021).
1 In Portugal, baldios are lands traditionally owned and managed by local rural communities that use them collectively, mainly for agroforestry-pastoral purposes, and are therefore also known as community forests.
