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In the woods around Setúbal, you only have to walk a few metres to find sick trees which have been devastated by the infestation of a microscopic worm, the nematode. They are totally dried up.

The European Commission issued an embargo on the export of untreated Portuguese wood on August 20th because of this outbreak.

The appearance of the nematode in Portugal, in 1999, has become a plague. Foresters say that Portugal's maritime pine forests are in danger of being wiped out. "What happens is that the worm reproduces inside the tree. And that reproductive process blocks up the tree's sap routes so that sap can't circulate. The sap stops moving around the tree, and the tree dries out. It's like a human having blocked veins, it would lead to a cerebral vascular accident, or stroke", says Nuno Calado, a forest engineer of a Portuguese foresters' association, UNAC.

Specialists like Professor Manuel Mota at the University of Valverde (Evora) fear that the worm will spread. Inside the forests, the nematode spreads fast thanks to a very common insect, the pine sawyer beetle. “I think it's impossible to completely eradicate nematodes. All we can do is exercise a rigid control system so that this nematode population is contained and limited to one small region”, Professor Mota explains, showing us nematodes thanks to his microscope.

Portuguese authorities are trying to exercise rigid control through a scheme they've put into place. Among other things, tree-fellers are forced to cut down all sick trees. "But sick wood loses its value, says Nuno Calado. In some cases, it can lose 50% of its selling price. To that you have to add the extra 15% it costs to treat the affected trees."

Maritime pine is the second largest forest species in the country. Its commercialisation offers a yearly turnover of 1,500 million euros, and provides 55,000 jobs.

The nematode scourge is particularly worrying for small businesses – because the European restrictions compel them to make additional investments that are hard to finance. Stephan Morais, CEO of the furniture fabric TemaHome, asserts that Portuguese firms had to adapt themselves very quickly after the embargo issued by the European commission: "What the firms in effect have done is to make sure that either they buy pines that are not made in Portugal, so that they can transform them; or that all the furniture that's exported comes with pine certified by thermal shock."

Brussels is preparing a fresh series of measures to prevent the spread of nematodes to Spain and France.