Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)MARBELLA town hall has finally creaked into action to protect the endangered Artola dunes – but many are still under threat.
Officials agreed to preserve the dunes – a rich eco-system alongside Cabopino beach – which were declared a natural monument in 2003.
Some 500,000 euros have been made available to accompany the 1.7m euros set to be invested by Junta environment chiefs.
Plans are afoot to create special walkways across the dunes and remove the roadways as well as replant the 71,250m² area.
However, the Barronal de la Morera dunes are still facing destruction.
Some 152 homes are still set to be built on two-thirds of the beach, despite the threat to some of Andalucia’s most endangered birds.
Hopes were raised when Marbella’s ruling Partido Popular (PP) hinted that it may make an about turn to protect the coastline.
Criticised
The Izquierda Unida has heavily criticised the PP for initially agreeing to the construction.
Over 2000 complaints were received by the town hall after the development got the original go-ahead.
Biologists at Malaga University and the Spanish ornithology society (SEO) have long emphasised the environmental importance of the dunes.
The zone surrounding the dunes is abundant in small migratory birds as well as insects and reptiles.
would these homes ever be legal, my sister has a horrendous block of apartaments next to hers that should have been built 100mts from the beach, they actualy built them 20 mts, but were deemed legal while so many other people have had their homes demolished, marbella is a mess and allready have thousands of illegal properities authorised by the last lot of crackpots that were allowed to govern
What needs to be made as painfully known to potential buyers of those properties as possible is the extreme risk they will face every year that they live in house that was built there, of having the original building permit revoked as it should be and their house broken up and knocked down to decompose into the original sand it was never supposed to have been built on.
Shocking, I hope something has been resolved now in favour of the dunes and their eco-system, I am experiencing the same sort of thing here in the north of Scotland, in Aberdeenshire, where they ( Donald Trump and co ) are trying to build a golf resort, in the process destroying a large part of another protected dune eco-system, a shifting one. It goes under the ‘save our dunes and our homes’ in a desperate petition to save the area. Good luck to all who fight for the preservation of this here in Marbella if it has not been saved already.