EU budget negotiations are intensifying, with governments invoking climate change as an argument for maintaining agricultural funding. Portugal's Minister of Agriculture, José Manuel Fernandes, has a specific proposal for the next EU long-term budget.
Fernandes argues that Brussels should help pay shepherds to let goats, cows, and sheep graze in the scrubland of high wildfire risk areas. The goal is to use grazing as a wildfire prevention measure.
The Portuguese minister argues that preventing wildfires helps reduce carbon emissions, thus establishing a link between land management and the fight against climate change. This approach is described as low-tech, in contrast to other more modern prevention measures.
