The Council of Ministers, at the proposal of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO)approved this Tuesday two bills in order to establish the basic legal framework of forest firefighters and forestry and environmental agents y ensure equivalent working and professional conditions throughout the country.
Both groups perform an undeniable work in the defense and protection of the natural environment. Every year the season of forest fires It is prolonged and their virulence is greater due to the climate emergency. It is necessary to be prepared 365 days a year to prevent and fight fire. The two regulatory instruments underpin the Government’s commitment to the prevention and fight against fires, as well as the care, defense and protection of the natural environment.
After approval in the Council of Ministers, aBoth texts go on to be processed in the Congress of Deputies. “With these provisions we fulfill a commitment assumed from the electoral program, but also from the desire to have a relationship between the administration and these groups that allows maximum guarantee of dignity in the exercise of the very important functions they perform for environmental protection and Therefore, the protection of citizens,” said the Vice President of the Government at a press conference.
Forest firefighters: more than 20,000 professionals
In the case of forest firefighters, The standard will basic regulate the conditions under which the more than 20,000 professionals who provide an essential service and of social interest in our country carry out their work. It will do so regardless of the specific legal-labor nature of each case.
The main regulated aspects are the express and individualized legal recognition of the category or figure of forest firefighter at the national level; the definition of functions that, in addition to extinction, may, in addition and where appropriate, include prevention, detection, surveillance, information work for the population, as well as support for contingencies in the natural and rural environment; prevention of occupational risks and legal defense of the group. Likewise, it recognizes the entire group’s application of the royal decree on early retirement of firefighters serving public administrations and organizations.
Forestry and environmental agents: 6,000 professionals
There are different bodies, scales, specialties in the territorial structure, which is reflected in the existence of different forestry and environmental agents dependent on different public administrations in the national territory, such as the environmental agents of the scale of autonomous organizations attached to MITECO or those dependent on the autonomous communities. This has led to the development of different regulations on this group, made up of about 6,000 professionals. Although there already existed basic state regulations applicable to the environment, the existing divergence in organizational and functional models makes it necessary to approve the basic framework of forestry and environmental agents at the national level.
This standard reinforces the consideration of forestry and environmental agents as special administrative police and judicial police. in a generic sense. Furthermore, they will have the character of agents of authority for all legal purposes.
With the regulatory instrument that has been approved today, the basic legal framework is established in which se defines the status and tasks to be performed by forestry and environmental agents. Among them are tasks of custody and surveillance of nature, support for environmental management, and assistance and collaboration in emergencies and civil protection in the natural environment.