Ecolo has proposed creating a Benelux fleet of firefighting aircraft as part of a broader plan to better prepare Belgium for the growing risk of forest fires and wildfires.
The French-speaking Green party says its plan is built around four priorities: strengthening emergency services, improving protection for residents, adapting spatial planning and using nature as a first line of defence against fires.
As a first step, Ecolo wants to increase staffing and equipment for emergency services, civil protection and the Département Nature et Forêts, the Walloon counterpart to Flanders’ Agency for Nature and Forests.
It also proposes setting up a shared firefighting aircraft fleet with Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
But the party says improving response capacity alone will not be enough. "Emergency services do excellent work, but they only act once the fire is already burning," co-leader Marie-Colline Leroy and Gilles Vanden Burre said.
"It is the responsibility of the authorities to intervene before disaster strikes and to strengthen the resilience of our territory," they added.
Ecolo is also calling for firebreaks of 20 to 40 metres between forests and homes, as well as adequate water reserves.
The party further wants building rules to be revised so that properties are better able to withstand fires spreading from surrounding land.
Finally, Ecolo proposes restoring wetlands and peatlands and making forests more diverse by reducing conifer monocultures and promoting mixed woodland.
