Henrique Pinheiro

Henrique Pinheiro (aged 53), managing partner of Medal Seguros Lda., representantative of Allianz and Zurich (among others) in Portimão

ECO123: How can we avoid fires in Portugal?
Henrique Pinheiro: Thirty years ago there were no fires. Why? There were also forests, but they were kept clear. Why don’t we send the military to watch over the forests like in Monchique? And the firefighters need to have better access to the areas, better resources and secure funding. We need to take more care. Clear, protect the land and avoid fires. Firebreaks, tanks and dams…

From the point of view of an insurance company, what is the fire risk of a eucalyptus forest?
It’s an interesting business, but I am not aware of another with such high risks – only Formula 1 perhaps. I think that fires are also a business, and difficult to stop. Eucalyptus is a big risk for insurance. We have two current cases here which we turned down. Allianz and Zurich refused to insure the eucalyptus forest, they won’t do it. I’m being sincere: the risk is very high and difficult to insure. Talking of Portucel, maybe they have a specific insurance policy to guarantee some forests that they managed, some schemes for security, personal protection, guards, lookouts and more… it’s not an easy situation. We have some policies for the trees of a client who has them inside a yard in an urbanisation. The fire risk there is reasonable, but in a forest the insurance companies don’t accept.