On the 20th of September more than 750 people took part in protests in fourteen cities across Portugal: Águeda, Arganil, Aveiro, Braga, Coimbra, Leiria, Lisbon, Lousã, Odemira, Oliveira do Hospital, Pedrógão Grande, Porto, São Pedro do Sul and Sertã. The places with the highest turnout this year were Lousã, Arganil, Sertã and Oliveira do Hospital, areas that were particularly devastated in 2025.
The areas most affected by the fires were those where there was the most mobilisation, around the Açor and Lousã mountains, where the largest mega-fires ever recorded in the history of Portugal took place this Summer. Despite the fires the day before, a crowd of over 100 participants gathered in front of the Town Hall in Oliveira do Hospital under the slogan ‘De-eucalyptise, Decarbonise, Democratise’. The protests organised by Rede Emergência Florestal / Floresta do Futuro (Forest Emergency Network / Forest of the Future) were coordinated with the international Draw the Line mobilisation, which organised protests around the world against the social and environmental chaos caused by the climate crisis. In Portugal, forest fires are the most obvious manifestation of this crisis which, combined with a territory abandoned and handed over to companies such as The Navigator Company and Altri, has turned the country, particularly the interior, into a flammable and dangerous area for the population.
The protest organised by Rede Emergência Florestal / Floresta do Futuro (Forest Emergency Network / Forest of the Future) is a cry of revolt against the resignation that Portugal has to be the most flammable country in Europe and its rural populations have to be cannon fodder for the fossil fuel and paper pulp industries. It is urgent and imperative to cut greenhouse gas emissions and make structural changes in the country, against the obstacles imposed by successive governments in conjunction with destructive industries such as paper pulp and energy.
Climáximo has been involved in coordinating the Rapid Response Network for Forest Fires / Forest of the Future since 2023 and this year was particularly involved in organising the protest in Lisbon (although some supporters were present in other parts of the country). Now that this year’s protest is over, we are currently beginning to prepare for the implementation of what was approved last month in our new Climate Emergency Declaration: “We understand that it will be necessary to broaden and organise the social base of the movement in order to mobilise thousands of people to halt the climate crisis and respond to the outrageous moments it causes. There are at least two angles from which to approach this task: we can look at the causes and we can look at the effects.
On the effects side, as Portugal is a critical warming zone, all territories are on the front line of fires, heatwaves and drought. Together with the communities in the most affected territories, we will, until next summer, understand how to make these effects of the climate crisis visible and take action to avoid the worst-case scenarios. This implies not only active solidarity, but also organisation in terms of communities. We do not have much experience with the second component. We will have to learn, listen and co-design this campaign – which will occupy the coming months ahead of us. Once the Network’s action is complete this year, we will devote ourselves to co-creating a campaign on the effects of the climate crisis with a particular emphasis on the areas most affected by fires, heatwaves and droughts.