This national strategy, which will now be submitted to public consultation, was approved at the Council of Ministers dedicated to forests and chaired by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

At the press conference, the Minister of Internal Administration explained that this strategy contemplates a set of "broad measures that strengthen governance in risk management, improve knowledge about risks, implement risk reduction management, create mechanisms to better prepare the system in relation to the occurrence of risks and involve citizens in risk knowledge.

"This is a path that involves most of the governmental areas in close connection with the local authorities, with the forest producers and that has to do with the preparation both for mitigation and for what to do in case of occurrence of a rural fire", stressed Eduardo Cabrita.

The national strategy for a preventive civil protection until 2030 was one of the laws approved on 4 March in the Council of Minister aiming at the reinforcement of the civil protection.

The minister also said that the Council of Ministers appreciated the work done over the past three years in terms of fighting and preventing rural fires, in which "there was no civil victim" and there was a reduction of over 50 percent of the number of occurrences and burnt area compared to the average of the last 10 years.