WWF has regretted that the Popular Party has registered this Friday in the Parliament of Andalusia a new bill to modify the Special Plan of the Forest Crown of Doñana in “a new attempt to grant amnesty to illegal irrigators before the next municipal elections”. For WWF, the current proposal, “disguised as an improvement and recovery plan” for Doñana, is “as serious and unacceptable as the previous one.”
“Disguised as an improvement and recovery plan” for Doñana, it is “as serious and unacceptable as the previous one.” “A clear provocation to the European institutions that have condemned Spain for the serious deterioration of Doñana and the failure to comply with UNESCO recommendations”
As indicated by the organization in a press release, it also implies “a breach of the commitments” of President Juanma Moreno to “protect Doñana and a new deception to society and to the farmers themselves of the surroundings of the park”. They also point out that it is “a clear provocation to the European institutions that have condemned Spain for the serious deterioration of Doñana and the failure to comply with UNESCO recommendations”.
The Popular Party once again puts the future of Doñana at risk
“The Popular Party once again jeopardizes the future of Doñana, its biodiversity and the image of strawberries and the agricultural sector of the County and Huelva to benefit a few illegal. The new proposal lacks the consensus of a large part of the actors in the territory. Besides, ignores the management of agricultural land which established the Land Management Plan for the Doñana Area (Potad) in 2004 and which was incorporated into the Special Forest Crown Plan (Peofcd) in 2014, also known as Strawberry Plan (1)“, they have criticized from WWF.
In this sense, the NGO has stressed that both plans “have the endorsement of the Doñana Participation Council and Unesco” and the Strawberry Plan “has been admitted by the European Commission as one of the measures to comply with the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union against Spain due to the critical state in which the area is located”.
For all these reasons, WWF has indicated that the path chosen for the modification of the Strawberry Plan through a bill “has no justification”, since “of according to Law 7/2021of December 1, promoting the sustainability of the territory of Andalusia (LISTA), the Junta de Andalucía is competent to modify these plans without having to resort to Parliament“.
Intends to prevent public participation
In this regard, the procedure chosen for the modification of the Strawberry Plan by the Andalusian Government, in WWF’s opinion, “only intends to avoid public participation, the environmental impact assessment regulations and the mandatory reports for their approval and modification, such as that of the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, which has already spoken out against it”.
On the other hand, the organization has detailed that the Special Plan was prepared together with its Environmental Impact Study and a Previous Environmental Assessment Report was drafted. The corrective measures established in the Environmental Impact Study “were incorporated into the Plan”, as well as the requirements of the sectoral reports, among them the corresponding one from the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, “which showed its conformity with the stipulations of the Plan in relation to state powers in water matters.
“These procedures and reports will not exist in this parliamentary procedure of the modification of the Strawberry Planwhich shows that the PP Andaluz and the Junta de Andalucía pursue a single interest, the amnesty to a small group of illegal exploitationswho claim rights that are non-existent, without the possibility of citizen opposition or negative reports that put the modification at risk due to its evident illegality”, WWF has reproached.
In addition, the organization maintains that “more than a hundred appeals have been filed against the Potad and the Strawberry Planno sentence of the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia or the Supreme Court has annulled any article or provision of the same, which demonstrates that its regulations are legal and fair and the historical rights alluded to are non-existent“.
Exclusive profit and business interests
“For this reason, these illegal irrigators have resorted to pressure so that it is the politicians, just before the municipal elections in May, who change the rules for their exclusive profit and business interest,” he added.
WWF demands “again” the Andalusian Government to “withdraw this proposal and to comply with its powers and legal obligations and execute once and for all the Strawberry Plan in its current wording
For all these reasons, WWF demands “again” the Andalusian Government to “withdraw this proposal and to comply with its powers and legal obligations and execute once and for all the Strawberry Plan in its current wording”, since with this “it would be possible to benefit the aquifer, the universal values of Doñana and the legal agriculture of this territory, providing solutions to many of the problems that are currently being raised in relation to irrigation in the County “.
SEO/BirdLife regrets the “obstinacy” of the Andalusian Government for “amnestying illegal irrigation”
On the other hand, SEO/BirdLife regrets the “obstinacy” of the Government of Andalusia for “amnestying illegal irrigation”, which “thrives in the forest crown of Doñana”, by presenting new parliamentary proposals aimed, in its opinion, “to increase the irrigated area in the surroundings of the national park, which is located in a critical water situation“.
It is a “unilateral decision” of the Andalusian Government that “ignores the criteria of international organizations such as the UNESCOthe ramsar conventionthe Union International for the Conservation of Naturethe reports of the Doñana Biological Stationlas complaints from environmental NGOs such as SEO/BirdLife, reports from the scientific community and warnings from the European Commission”
In this sense, the environmental organization considers that it is a “unilateral decision” of the Andalusian Government that “ignores the criteria of international organizations such as the UNESCOthe ramsar convention (2)the Union International for the Conservation of Naturethe reports of the Doñana Biological Stationlas complaints from environmental NGOs such as SEO/BirdLife, reports from the scientific community and warnings from the European Commission”.
Ignore the warnings of the EC about important fines to Spain
In this regard, SEO/BirdLife has criticized that the Junta de Andalucía has been since 2014 “without implementing the commitments acquired” in the Crown Forestry Plan (PEOFCD) in 2014 for the management of red fruit crops in Doñana, which “does have the support of the Participation Council” of the park.
“It is especially serious to ignore the warnings from the European Commission about important fines to Spain for the breach of commitments to preserve natural values of one of the main natural jewels of Europe. Fines that Andalusians and other Spaniards will pay”, warned the head of the SEO/BirdLife Technical Office in Doñana, Carlos Davila.
According to reports from the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, overexploitation affects 62% of the aquifer sectors, which are in a worse situation than would correspond according to rainfall
In this sense, Davila explained that the commitment to surface water to supply farms “should go hand in hand with territorial planning and the sustainable use of resources, not with the increase in irrigable area and amnesty for offenders in a grave comparative grievance between farmers”.
“The Special Management Plan for irrigated areas located to the north of the Doñana forest crown (PEOFCD), approved in 2014 and which should be a key tool of the Junta de Andalucía to address the management of irrigation of the Doñana, continues unexecuted eight years after its approval. Meanwhile, according to the reports of the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, overexploitation affects 62% of the aquifer sectors, which are in a worse situation than what would correspond according to rainfall,” Davila pointed out.
Likewise, the person in charge of SEO/BirdLife has remarked that sectoral policies “must assume and integrate nature conservation policies and regulations”, such as Directives of Water, Birds and Habitats“ensuring, thus, the socioeconomic viability of local populations through more sustainable production models, based on the natural values of their area, adapted and resilient to the effects of global warming in the Mediterranean basin”.
References
- (1) Doñana Strawberry Plan Report 2016. WWF.
- (2) Report of the Ramsar 95 advisory mission: Spain (2020). Ramsar Convention.