The National Republican Guard (GNR) plans to use this year 28 drones equipped with portable video surveillance cameras for forest protection and detection of rural fires, a slight increase compared with 2025, the corps told Lusa.
In a reply sent to Lusa regarding the forest surveillance system for this year, the National Republican Guard stated that it has the capacity to use unmanned aerial vehicle systems (drones) in territory surveillance missions, including in the scope of monitoring and detecting rural fires, and that it plans to use this year 28 portable video surveillance cameras on drones for forest protection and detection of forest fires, which can be used “whenever operational needs justify it”.
The GNR also notes that it is developing, between June 1 and September 30, a specific operational directive for areas affected by storm Kristin, in the Leiria region, which foreses “the strengthening of surveillance and detection measures for rural fires” in that area.
According to the corporation, these measures “do not specifically rely on the use of drones, focusing mainly on strengthening actions of mobile ground patrols”.
The forest surveillance system also integrates the Fire Surveillance and Detection Network, which, according to the GNR, “is a fundamental tool for monitoring rural territories and early detection of rural fires” and is composed of “a set of towers equipped with surveillance cameras, operated by different public entities and collaborators.”
The GNR indicates that this network currently comprises 147 towers for remote monitoring of forest surveillance dispersed across the country.
According to the GNR, the 147 towers ensure the surveillance of around seven million hectares and their installation was defined based on “technical and operational criteria, privileging the forest areas most susceptible to the occurrence of rural fires and with the highest history of risk and danger of rural fire”.
