At first glance, those passing through Complementary Itinerary 8, on the way to the municipalities of Figueiró dos Vinhos, Castanheira de Pera or Pedrógão Grande, cannot identify the marks of the 2017 fires, the deadliest in the country, with the landscape marked by a continuous expanse of eucalyptus, much of it already adult and tall enough to be cut.

But the professor from the Coimbra Higher School of Agriculture, Joaquim Sande Silva, and the forestry technician from the Figueiró dos Vinhos City Council, Rui Alves, draw attention to marks that escape an inattentive and uninformed glance: some dead trees, burned in 2017, can still be seen in the hills, and invasive species, such as acacia and hakea, have gained ground.

These signs represent some of the consequences of these fires - more abandonment of land, left at the mercy of the natural regeneration of species - but there are also positive changes, noted Rui Alves.

Examples of this are the Village Condominiums (which ensure a 100-meter safety perimeter around the localities), the cleaning of roadsides or the integrated landscape management areas (AIGP), which could establish themselves as instruments to make the territory more resilient to fires.

On a journey through the territory, Rui Alves, 50 years old, a firefighter for 20 in Castanheira de Pera, and Joaquim Sande Silva, who was a member of the Independent Technical Commission (set up to analyze the fires in Pedrógão Grande), help to understand what was done, what remains to be done and the problems that persist here, but which extend to other areas of the country.

At the viewpoint next to Fragas de São Simão, in Figueiró dos Vinhos, Rui Alves points to the horizon and says that the entire area around it will be covered by the AIGP of Aguda -- there will be more than 900 hectares of forest that will be managed with funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

There, it is proposed to plant pine on steep slopes facing south, take advantage of the cork oak stands, reduce the area of eucalyptus, but maintain production areas of this species, create forests of oak, chestnut, olive groves and pasture areas.

"It is important not to go around with inventions. We need to take advantage of what Nature has already installed", Joaquim Sande Silva tells the Lusa agency.

But while the AIGP is not implemented, what is seen, in addition to the cork oaks that resisted the fires and a clean area next to the walkways and the water line that feeds the Fragas, is eucalyptus that has grown spontaneously -- some of it cared for, much of it unmanaged.

"We look at this landscape and it is completely impossible to know what was installed by man and what Nature did", observes the professor, noting the eucalyptus' ability to colonize new lands.

Rui Alves, who remembers that pine trees were predominant -- the region is known as Pinhal Interior -, believes that the area has an unusual appetite for eucalyptus production.

One is planted and they multiply, he explains. "They do wonderfully. This is their land," he adds.

The AIGP, explains the senior technician from the Figueiró dos Vinhos City Council, will also allow, with centralized management, to overcome one of the major constraints of much of the national territory north of the Tagus: many properties and all of them small.

Shortly after, the journey continues along national road 236-1, where most of the fatalities from the Pedrógão Grande fires were recorded.

Next to that road, the memorial was erected in homage to all the victims of the 2017 fires and the President of the Republic will also pass by there during the June 10 commemorations.

On site, it is possible to verify the cleaning of the fuel management strips, and the nearby eucalyptus forests are managed, despite the fact that the ferns that have grown in the meantime cover part of the work.

"It is a Biond [former Paper Industry Association] project to clean up stands," explains Rui Alves.

Joaquim Sande Silva congratulates himself on what he sees and recalls that after the fires all those lands were to be managed, but the forestry technician is quick to warn that what is seen is cleaning, "it is not planning".

To prove what he says, the journey is made along a secondary road of the 236-1, in a 200-meter detour into the forest.

"This is our native landscape in recent years", says Rui Alves, pointing to abandoned eucalyptus.

Joaquim Sande Silva stirs the soil with his hand. "Look at the amount of material that remains here, in the soil, the fuel load. It is ten or 15 centimeters of dry material accumulated to burn," he notes, stating that the big problem with eucalyptus is the amount of dry material that ends up accumulating, on unmanaged land.

Rui Alves draws on his experience as a firefighter: "This flies 500 meters, as incandescent material in the air."

The journey continues along secondary roads, where it is already common to see the clean management strips.

Joaquim Sande Silva looks at the clean roadsides and cannot hide his frustration, both in what is done along the roads or along the electricity distribution lines: "Barbarities are done on the secondary network. Slaughter of oak trees, situations that would never burn in life and, from the moment the intervention is made, it becomes more susceptible to burning."

According to the professor, the legislation in force requires that trees be at least four meters apart from each other, which prevents shading and, consequently, less soil moisture and more undergrowth.

From a firefighter's perspective, Rui Alves believes that the strips "are not used to fight fires" or to stop any fire, only giving "more security to the operators".

As an operator, he argues that what would be important was the "cutting of the undergrowth [undergrowth under the tree canopy]" and guarantees that the shade could be able to "lower the flames".

"The problem is that this was all implemented by civil protection without listening to the forest area. People would be more protected if the trees were there, as long as care is taken to debranch them and remove the undergrowth, which is what feeds the fire," emphasizes Joaquim Sande Silva.

Further ahead, between Figueiró dos Vinhos and Castanheira de Pera, Rui Alves signals to stop the car, at a crossroads.

To the south, you can see Vale Vicente, a village in the municipality of Figueiró dos Vinhos with about a dozen inhabitants, easily identified from a distance by the safety perimeter made around it -- there is no forest around the town.

"It's very beautiful," comments Rui Alves.

Despite this, in the same direction, it is possible to see everything, what is good and bad in the territory - clean, abandoned forest, invasive species such as hakeas and a village more protected than it was in 2017.

"If my village had that done, I would stay home and watch the fire pass. With the 'Village Condominiums' projects, what is intended is to give security to the populations and, in a second aspect, to make them aware and train them for what to do in a context of rural fire," he explains.

For Joaquim Sande Silva, what is seen is "paradigmatic of what can be transformed in the landscape", but it is a drop in the ocean: "We managed to transform that little bit around that village, but then we look at the rest of the landscape and we see unmanaged forest, hakeas...”.

This project has followed its path in the three municipalities most affected by the fires of June 2017, with several dozen projects underway or awaiting approval.

Through the municipality of Castanheira de Pera, on the way to Serra da Lousã, the journey continues next to a slope, where there is clean pine forest and pockets full of acacias.

"If there is no intervention, that entire slope will be acacias," says Rui Alves.

The route ends in an area under co-management between the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests and common lands, already in Serra da Lousã, but still in the municipality of Castanheira de Pera, near the border between the districts of Coimbra and Leiria.

In a deciduous settlement, you can feel a fresher air and the humidity achieved by the shading, but a forest like that is a rarity in the territory, notes Rui Alves, who has seen the risk of large fires increas>