Fortunately or unfortunately, Natura is above the political, ethical and moral criteria, and it does not care about the discrepancies of the political parties, the debate on ideologies and our loophole, which is paying enthusiastically for the damage we generate, but now it is up to us to suffer the consequences of the climate emergency. We are late, the government is late.

We are not in favour of catastrophism, but of adopting feasible, eco-social and positive paths. Long before us, the ecological and naturalist groups, with the help of science, had foreseen this situation, but unfortunately they have not listened to them; capital, even in the forest, has ordered, and that savage exploitation has caused serious damage to land, water and biodiversity after decades.

It is time to make proposals and to implement them, and the government has endorsed them when drought, floods and water scarcity seem to us to have been torn apart.

Since our Platform arose a year ago around the claim of Living Forests, we want to bring reflection to the forest, because in this newly presented Plan the word BASOA does not appear at all, when one of the fundamental axes is the same; these plans have been designed from the perspective of capitals and for the benefit of capitals.

Among others, the following are mentioned: In the Drought Plan, the transfer of water, the reduction of uses, the cutting of water; in the Hydrological Plan, guarantee the quality of water, guarantee the security and supply of water, improve the sanitation of water; and finally, in the Flood Plan, improve the prediction and alert systems. And that's it, the forests don't exist.

A FAO report points out that water should be of great importance in forest management, monitoring and valuation, as it provides water services vital to biodiversity and are essential for agriculture, industry, the environment and the home.

However, one aspect that is often overlooked is the importance of forests for adequate water supply and conservation: forest water basins account for about 75 per cent of our available freshwater supply and therefore form an integral part of our water security.

We must recognise that forests play a fundamental role in water security and prioritise water in forest management and governance decisions. The location of water at the center of forest management would have important advantages at the level of resilience.

Having said that, we would like to point out that the "Euskadi Forestry Plan 1994-2030", elaborated by the government itself, said among other proposals:

- Catchment of river basins as a natural risk management unit is recommended.

- The definition and allocation of Protective Forests should be urgent in high-risk soils (rivers and streams that come to dams, river slopes that may cause floods, etc. ).

- In the CAPV there are 38,590 communal forests and 73,561 private forests, with a total of: 112.151. In the CAPV, 77.000 hectares of Private Forests will be declared as "Forest Protector".

- Establishment of a network of natural vegetation intersections throughout the territory from streams.

We share some of the measures contained in this plan, but 28 years ago they should have been put in place and when it is eight years to reach 2030, do you know how many hectares of protected forest have been recovered? Zero.

Why is there no investment in this Plan in indigenous protected forests, why are forests not taken into account? In addition, protective forests offer us another kind of protection against fires from pyrophyte plantations. We say forests – not plantations – because the water deficit generated by the monoculture of the latter is much more pronounced than that of the native forests. A reflection on the so-called "hydric deficit" of Busturia, Mundaka and Sukarrieta, published by Erroxeli Ojinaga in Busturi:

"However, information to the population does not include two important elements: the influence of the plantations of timber companies with eucalyptus species in the aggravation of this drought and in the significant reduction of the water resources available to our three municipalities. The yield of these plantations is based on a high consumption of water. It should be noted that the rivers and streams of the municipality are part of the Urdaibai River Network. The intensive management of forests, which is alternated with rapidly growing species and is cut to clear-cutting, generates important impacts on the protected water network of the municipality".

We know that only forests cannot cope with the climate emergency, but they can be good allies in the face of droughts, fires and floods, so we ask the government and Mrs Tapia: That the forestry planning of the Basque Country between 1994 and 2030 be implemented right now, with the greatest possible social participation, that is, taking into account that in addition to the institutions, the other social agents that we work in this area. Likewise, we ask you not to reject a dignified and safe water supply in several counties, such as Busturialdea, to all others saying that “the water supply is guaranteed for the coming weeks”. For the next few weeks? The weather has come to stop the emergency, not for a few weeks. You have to be more daring, this is the infrastructure and the fundamental challenge that this country needs if we are to survive as a people.

We call “protective forests” because in this emergency and in which they come they will protect us, for sure.

Nature does not need us, we need nature and forests (not plantation, monoculture sucks).