SPAIN: The Andalucian regional government has been blamed by the Spanish government for taking part in “short-term electoral demagoguery” and for engaging with the far right by initiating strawberry farm irrigation plans that might jeopardise one of the most significant wetlands in Europe.
The head of the Donana office of the environmental NGO SEO/BirdLife has blamed the Conservative People’s Party, PP, for using the area “for a handful of votes”. Both the European Commission and Unesco are closely monitoring the situation and have warned that Spain may face consequences for failing to protect Doana.
Marshes, forests, and dunes encapsulate approximately 130,000 hectares that require proper water supply. One of the most important regions is the Unesco-listed national park, which has suffered a lot owing to the climate crisis, excessive farming, pollution caused by mining, and the drainage of marshes.
New laws by the leading conservative party and the far-right Vox Party, however, came to the fore, with the local governments disregarding these concerns from the Unesco and European Commission that would allow an augmented area of irrigable land surrounding Donana by 800 hectares.
Teresa Ribera, Spain’s environment minister and one of Spain’s three deputy prime ministers, has mentioned, “I think it’s a dangerous decision because there’s never going to be extra water there,” adding, “It generates expectations and poses a difficult threat to the area. Doana is a nature sanctuary that is under many pressures. The last thing we need is for new pressures to emerge.”
Ribera also mentions that the legislation was a result of the local elections that would take place in May, as she specifies, “I think it’s short-term electoral demagoguery. I think [the regional government] is coming under a lot of pressure from the far right, from Vox, who want to tub-thump to capitalise on the fears of the local population.”
The PP president of the area, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, mentions that “regularising” the area can be the only solution to facilitate the survival of farmers who are using the land illegally.
The area that houses many migrating birds and a major number of Iberian lynxes that are endangered has now been addressed by environmental groups, specifying that the soft fruit farms have illegal wells sunk to sustain the area’s soft fruit farms that are ruining the aquifer.
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