No abstract

Fuel management areas (FMA) can be classified depending on their different objectives, as primary, secondary and tertiary, and can be made up of firebreaks when fuels are totally removed, fuelbreaks and fuelbreak shades when land remains covered by vegetation, but fuels are reduced in volume and flammability. Given the recognized importance of these areas (as defensible spaces), but also their variety, they may be found in several legislations but regulated in quite different modes. In general terms, however, it is possible to observe that there are common features which are considered in the legal regulation of fuel management, mostly at the wildland-urban interface: the location of the land; its wildfire hazardousness and the type of the vegetation present on the property and its surroundings. Portuguese legislation distinguishes between primary, secondary and tertiary fuel management areas, but adopts a very simplified approach to secondary FMA, considering only the type of activity at hand and the type of land (forest or agricultural) in the surroundings, and no other relevant factors as topography, climate and concrete vegetation. This contribution focuses on secondary areas and defines their main traits, from the point of view of legal regulation, and also the difficulties in their operationalisation.

No contexto de explosão de declarações simbólicas de emergência climática, em que se insere a Declaração de Emergência Climática e Ambiental do Parlamento Europeu, pouco ou muito pouco se tem feito para o desencadear de uma ação em resposta à crise ambiental. Nesse sentido, o presente trabalho, essencialmente exploratório e propositivo, busca analisar os desafios da operacionalização jurídica da urgência ambiental, que começam pela natureza jurídica de suas declarações, mergulham em preocupações democráticas e com a proteção dos direitos fundamentais, e estão sempre permeados pela necessidade de ações coordenadas a viabilizar respostas eficazes à emergência ambiental.

No abstract