According to the OECD, these situations reflect delays in the mobilization of specialized forces and an unclear operational chain of command during the initial attack and pre-suppression phases (an operation that takes place after the fire has been declared extinguished) due to the diversity of interested and involved parties.
“As a result, resources were allocated late or insufficiently in a context of multiple and complex fires”, concluded the technicians.
OECD technicians state that Portugal initiated a series of reforms to improve fire management after 2017 with the creation of the Integrated Rural Fire Management System (SGIFR), but, they indicate, the fires of 2024 and 2025 revealed that “they could be further contained if actions under the SGIFR were accelerated.”
According to that organization, the introduction of the SGIFR improved the institutional, regulatory and financial conditions for the management of forest fires, clarified responsibilities at national, regional and municipal levels in terms of prevention and response, created the AGIF to coordinate all actors involved and developed a unified strategy.
After 2017, new incentives were created to promote controlled burning and strategic fuel mosaics to reduce the risk of fire, with public funding for management doubling, with prevention now representing almost half of total fire-related expenses.
“However, The extent of the damage caused by the 2024/205 bushfires points to the need to accelerate the implementation of reforms. In 2024, 35 fires caused more than 500 hectares, representing 84% of the total area burned annually and the summer of 2025 again saw fires of exceptional size, exceeding the area burned by the fires that triggered reforms in Portugal in 2017”, says the OECD, stressing that these fires revealed “several gaps”.
In addition to “coordination failures”, the OECD points out some failures in terms of prevention such as “a high number of man-made fires”, persistent gaps in meeting fuel management targets and local disputes over fire risk and danger maps.
“This delays the adoption of municipal plans for the implementation of fire management measures, which are essential to obtain financing and implement fire regulations”, highlights the document, also regretting that “there is no systematic record of losses and damages caused by forest fires”.
For the country to create “a stronger institutional framework”, the OECD recommends clarifying the functions and command structures among firefighters and strengthening their capacity.
The organization also proposes the development of “a long-term financing strategy for wildfires in order to increase the efficiency of wildfire management spending”.