On 11th November 2016 the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources of Madeira, Susana Prada announced in the Madeira Regional Parliament that the Government will proceed with a fire prevention plan that involves the expropriation of forest land.

She stated that from September, government has prepared a project to be implemented from January 2017”, adding that is expected to expropriate forest land, remove eucalyptus and other invasive plants, introduce endemic and more fire resistant species, create new access and build several water reservoirs.

The Secretary explained that the Government will intervene in private land that was affected by the fires with measures of “recovery and reforestation” and, on the other hand, will carry out the conversion of plant cover of which suffered no damage.”She said that this is a long term strategy as what we are doing in terms of spatial planning will only be visible in a few tens of years”, she warned, noting that a 40 year-old tree is still a young tree.