Spanish lawmakers consider plan to increase irrigation in one of Europe’s most prized wetlands

A plan to extend irrigation in an space adjoining considered one of Europe’s most prized wetlands is ready to advance Wednesday with the approval of lawmakers within the southern Spanish area of Andalusia.

The proposal to rezone the lands goes in opposition to the recommendation of ecologists and repeated warnings from Spain’s central authorities and European Union officers.

The vote is anticipated to begin the invoice down the trail towards turning into legislation. It’s sponsored by the ruling conservative In style Celebration, which holds an absolute majority within the regional parliament based mostly in Seville. It additionally has the assist of the far-right Vox social gathering.

If the measure turns into legislation, some 3,700 acres of land close to the Doñana nature reserve shall be declared irrigable. This may grant an amnesty to the various farms that already use unlawful wells to faucet into the aquifer underlying the wetlands to develop strawberries for export throughout Europe.

The In style Celebration says its intention is to assist farmers who’re in a authorized limbo regularize their livelihoods, and pledges that the plan won’t harm the wetlands.

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The spokesman for Andalusia’s authorities, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, mentioned that his authorities is dedicated to defending Doñana and that the proposed invoice would analyze case-by-case the farmers who ask for water rights.

“I’m nervous that the EU is receiving a distorted picture of what the invoice says,” he mentioned.

Ecologists and opposition events, nonetheless, accuse the In style Celebration of making an attempt to win votes forward of regional elections on Could 28. The invoice might be pushed by way of earlier than the elections, though that’s not assured.

Cracks within the mud are seen in a dry wetland in Donana pure park, Spain, on Oct. 19, 2022. Lawmakers within the Andalusia area are set on April 12, 2023, to vote in favor of rezoning lands close to considered one of Europe’s most prized wetlands as irrigable in opposition to the recommendation of ecologists. (AP Photograph/Bernat Armangue, File)

Florika Fink-Hooijer, the top of the EU’s Directorate Common for the Atmosphere, informed Spain’s authorities final month that the EU wouldn’t tolerate Andalusia’s plan. In 2021, the European Courtroom of Justice condemned Spain for neglecting the Doñana wetlands. Additional neglect of the character reserve may end in a hefty tremendous for Spain.

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Spain’s central government, run by a left-wing coalition, and scientists who work in Doñana agree that the plan would solely enhance the pressure on the aquifer, which is already underneath stress from an prolonged drought pushed by local weather change.

“This vote shouldn’t even happen,” Eloy Revilla, director of the Doñana Organic Station of the Spanish Nationwide Analysis Council, informed The Related Press by telephone.

Revilla mentioned it is going to ship the improper message: that those that use unlawful wells can get away with it.

“It won’t clear up the issues of Doñana or the farmers. It should solely additional complicate a scenario that’s already advanced,” he mentioned.

The scenario is “important” for the lagoons and marshes that make Doñana a UNESCO World Heritage Website and Biosphere Reserve, in response to Revilla.

“The ecosystems in Doñana that rely upon subterranean water are in important situation,” he mentioned. “And it’ll solely worsen if we take into account that final 12 months was very dry and this 12 months guarantees to be drier nonetheless.”

Different farmers who use authorized wells on already irrigable land are additionally in opposition to the transfer, fearing it is going to harm the fame of the berries that they market as being grown close to the pristine situations of Doñana.

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An virtually an identical invoice was introduced by the In style Celebration final 12 months, however didn’t make it to a remaining vote because of a snap election within the area.

The Doñana reserve covers 74,000 hectares (182,000 acres) on an estuary the place the Guadalquivir River meets the Atlantic Ocean on Spain’s southern coast. It’s a wintering website for a half-million waterfowl and a stopover spot for hundreds of thousands extra birds that migrate from Africa to northern Europe. It is usually house to 5 threatened chicken species, together with the endangered Spanish imperial eagle.