Pablo Balbontin
MALAGA’S Sierra de las Nieves natural park could have National Park status by 2019.
Isabel García Tejerina, Spain’s Minister of Agriculture and Fishing, Food and Environment announced during a visit to the park that she expects the draft bill to be presented to Congress before the year end.
It would become the 16th National Park in Spain and the third in Andalucía, along with the Sierra Nevada in Granada and Doñana which covers Huelva, Cadiz and Sevilla provinces.
The Sierra de las Nieves covers a hefty 20,163 hectares and includes the towns of Ronda, Lifa, El Burgo, Yunquera, Tolox, Ojén and Istán in the northwest of the region.
Tejerina said the new status is the unanimous wish of local residents and businesses as it will bring economic prosperity to the Sierra.
The Minister added that the government also plans to protect the Mediterranean cetacean corridor travelled by many species of whale and dolphin as well as bluefin tuna through a 12% expansion of marine reserves.
