Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)CAMPAIGNS to increase the share of protected land across Andalucia are gathering pace.
Andalucia’s environmental commission has proposed expanding the Donana Natural Park in Huelva by over a quarter.
The proposal, made at a special meeting in early December, received unanimous support from the town halls, ecologists, businessmen and central and local government officials.
The plan would see at extra 13,000 hectares added to the 53,800 hectares currently comprising the park.
The protected area would be expanded southwards to mouth of the Guadalquivir river and westwards to the pass of the Rocina valley.
Donana is considered Europe’s most biodiverse wetland and was named a UNESCO world heritage site in 1994.
Meanwhile, Mijas mayor Antonio Sanchez has added his voice to the campaign to create a natural park in Malaga’s coastal hills.
Sanchez, of the Socialist party, proposed creating a working group to unite all the supporters of the project.
The new natural park was proposed by the Izquirda Unida opposition party this autumn to stop the spread of predatory development inland from Malaga.
The Sierra de Mijas is home to numerous animals, such as the genet, deer and wild boar.
UNESCO appointed areas are a meaningless concept. Many existing biospheres have already been built upon, rendering the entire concept a total waste of time. Just search this site for numerous examples of new projects being built on existing so-called “biospeheres”.
To protect the environment, one has to stop the ridiculous over-building, and bring a halt to the insatiable greed of developers who are in collusion with crooked local government and lawyers. To do that, one has to stop corruption, backhanders and nepotism. And in order to do that, one has to redesign the Spanish laws and planning practices that have been abused for so long.
Whenever some wild boar attack a golf course, it’s front page news and the creatures must be hunted down and destroyed! That just shows you the priority of Spain to its environment. We should be grateful there are such creatures; golfers should be hunted.
Gesture politics – and the only thing they’ll do is pass legislation and put up some signs.
As for policing it? Don’t make me laugh, they can’t even police what they’ve got!
These stories are reinvented over and over but are meaningless ,the reality is not the same and the Junta of Andalucia do not have a joined up plan which all the departments work towards.
It is clear to anyone with half a brain that the existing Parks and reserves should be protected imeadiatly. These areas should be taken out of the control of local politicians and a preservation plan should then be drawn up and made public. Only in the most extream circumstances should the plan and area be allowed to be changed.
who wrote this?