Eucalyptus is like the state - it sucks and takes everything for it

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Published: 17-02-2020

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Adolfo Cordero-Rivera
Grupo ECOEVO, E.E. Forestal, Universidade de Vigo (Pontevedra)
Spain
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5087-3550
No 15 (2019), Original articles, pages 19-33
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15304/rr.id6622
Submitted: 17-02-2020 Accepted: 17-02-2020 Published: 17-02-2020
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Abstract

Eucalyptus plantations in Galicia have been spreading without control over the last three decades, far exceeding forecasts. In large part, this increase is not the result of new plantations, but the invasion of abandoned lands, particularly after fires. This landscape puts at risk material, natural assets and people’s own lives, so it is necessary to enforce existing legal rules, and to regulate the forestry sector. The fact that the word “de-eucaliptization” has been chosen word of the year 2018 in the Portal of Words, shows that the population is very aware of the problems that these plantations can generate. This essay reviews the evidence of the relationship between eucalypts and fire, which has caused so many deaths in Portugal and other places where pyrophytic trees are planted in vast areas. I present the arguments that demonstrate the selfevident invasive capacity of eucalypts trees in the Galician mountains, where these trees are greatly favoured by fires. I also highlight that the lack of energy transmission from eucalypt trees to herbivores (as these are inedible trees), destroys trophic chains and consequently impedes selforganization of the ecosystem and accumulation of biodiversity. I conclude with the need to enforce existing regulations on these plantations, in order to reduce the likelihood of major fires in the future.

Keywords:

eucalypts, pyrophilia, fires, invasive alien species, sustainability
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