Portugal: Eucalyptus trees under fire - L'actualité en anglais

Down to Earth est au Portugal, là où ont eu lieu en 2017 les incendies de forêt les plus meurtriers du pays.

Les eucalyptus en partie responsables (texte en anglais)

Last year, 115 people were killed and 500,000 hectares of land scorched. The poor emergency response was largely to blame. But so, too, were eucalyptus trees. We take a closer look.

Eucalyptus trees cover a quarter of the country’s forests and the local rural economy depends on them as they are used to make paper. But the trees are highly combustible and growing out of control.

There’s hope that proper forest management will allow eucalyptus trees to provide people with much-needed livelihoods without taking lives. We tell you more.