Portugal Appoints New Forest Chief to Combat Wildfire Crisis and Restore Forest Management

The Portugal Agriculture Ministry has appointed a new director to lead Florestgal, the state-owned forestry company, ending a 15-month leadership vacuum that left the organization managing over 22,500 hectares without executive authority. António José Silva Vivas, a forestry engineer with decades of public-sector experience, assumed the presidency on March 23, 2026, for a three-year mandate running through 2028.

The appointment closes an awkward chapter for an entity created in the aftermath of Portugal's catastrophic 2017 wildfire season. Florestgal had operated without a permanent chief executive since January 2025, when José de Jesus Gaspar resigned—itself just 18 months after the dismissal of his predecessor, who was fired for publicly criticizing wildfire response protocols. The Administrative Board had been in caretaker mode since late 2023, with management contracts unsigned and strategic planning effectively frozen.

Why This Matters

• Forest oversight restored: Florestgal oversees 22,500 hectares of state-owned and managed forest across 26 municipalities, a significant portion of Portugal's public landscape estate.

• Mandate clarity: The new president has a three-year contract approved by CReSAP (the Public Administration Recruitment and Selection Commission, which oversees senior state-company appointments), signaling an attempt at governance stability after years of turmoil.

• Continuity preserved: Both existing board members—Cândida Pestana and Maria Azevedo e Silva—remain in their posts, ensuring institutional memory during the transition.

Who Is António Silva Vivas?

Vivas brings an atypical profile for a state enterprise president: four decades of fieldwork and municipal administration rather than private-sector credentials. He holds a doctorate in agronomic and forestry sciences and began his career as a forest ranger, progressing through technical roles at the Directorate-General for Forests (predecessor to today's Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests, ICNF). He later headed the Phytosanitary Control Division at the Regional Agriculture Directorate for Entre Douro e Minho, a northern agricultural zone prone to pest pressures and forest disease.

Since 2016, he has served as head of the Parks and Green Spaces Division for Braga Municipal Council on a service commission (a temporary secondment arrangement common in Portuguese public administration where employees are loaned to other public entities)—a role that gave him hands-on experience managing urban forestry, park infrastructure, and municipal landscaping budgets, though Florestgal's mission skews heavily toward rural fire prevention and commercial timber production.

The Agriculture Ministry confirmed the nomination on March 29, shortly after media inquiries revealed the prolonged vacancy.

What This Means for Your Safety: Forest Management and Fire Prevention

For residents across central and northern Portugal, this appointment directly affects your safety during fire season. Florestgal manages 86 properties distributed across regions prone to devastating wildfires. The company's primary job is to reduce wildfire risk through fuel management, selective thinning, and replacing highly flammable eucalyptus monocultures with mixed forests of maritime pine, cork oak, and native species that burn less intensely.

The company also oversees 6,900 hectares within Integrated Landscape Management Areas (ZIFs)—collaborative zones where private landowners, municipalities, and state agencies pool resources for fuel-break maintenance, controlled burns, and coordinated planting. These ZIFs were established after 2017 to combat land fragmentation, a critical vulnerability that allowed the Pedrógão Grande and Góis fires to spread rapidly across poorly maintained terrain, killing over 100 people in a single night and scorching more than 500,000 hectares.

Without a permanent president, the company struggled to negotiate timber contracts, approve fire-prevention infrastructure projects, or finalize its strategic planning—meaning firebreak maintenance, controlled burns, and coordinated land management across municipalities have been delayed. Vivas's appointment means these critical safety measures can move forward.

A History of Turbulence

Vivas becomes the fourth president in eight years, a turnover rate that has hampered long-term planning and left residents' fire-prevention needs in limbo. His immediate predecessor, Gaspar, lasted just 19 months before resigning in early 2025. Before him, Rui Gonçalves, a forestry engineer, was dismissed in October 2022 after publishing an opinion piece criticizing authorities' response to the Serra da Estrela wildfire that summer. The dismissal sparked debate over free speech and public-sector accountability.

The company's website still displayed outdated governance information as of late March, reflecting the sluggish bureaucratic machinery that characterizes many Portuguese state enterprises. The prolonged vacancy—now 15 months without a permanent chief—underscores the institutional instability residents have endured since the 2017 fires prompted a complete overhaul of forest management.

Impact on Wildfire Prevention and Timber Revenue

Florestgal's properties span fire-prone districts, including Figueiró dos Vinhos (where the company is headquartered), Castelo Branco, Coimbra, and Viseu. Its core mandate is to model fuel management, selective thinning, and species diversification—moving away from highly flammable eucalyptus monocultures toward mixed stands that resist rapid fire spread.

Revenue generation remains secondary but important. Timber sales fund operational costs, reducing the annual subsidy burden on the Agriculture Ministry. However, price volatility in pulp and sawlog markets has complicated cash-flow planning, and the leadership vacuum exacerbated contract negotiation delays that have left forest maintenance work incomplete.

The ZIF framework is especially significant for residents in fragmented rural areas. By coordinating smaller landowners—many of whom are absentee heirs or elderly rural residents—the company aims to overcome the spatial fragmentation that leaves firebreaks incomplete and access roads unmaintained, creating fire corridors. Vivas's municipal experience in Braga, where he coordinated parks departments and greenspace contractors across multiple stakeholders, may prove relevant to managing these complex rural projects.

What Comes Next

Vivas's first task will be formalizing management contracts for the current triennium, setting measurable targets for hectares treated, firebreaks constructed, and timber revenue. He must also address morale within Florestgal's roughly 50-person workforce, many of whom have weathered repeated leadership changes and uncertain budgets.

Political observers note that the Agriculture Ministry, now under the center-right coalition government, has prioritized rural development and fire resilience, making Florestgal's performance a litmus test for broader forest policy. The agency's ability to prevent future megafires—while generating sustainable income from state assets—will define Vivas's tenure and, by extension, the viability of Portugal's post-2017 forestry reform agenda.

For residents, the question is urgent: Can this appointment finally deliver the sustained, coordinated forest management that prevents tragedies like Pedrógão Grande from recurring? Whether three years will suffice to embed lasting governance norms and demonstrate measurable reductions in fire risk remains an open question—and one that will shape Portugal's fire seasons for years to come.