23 Dec, 2022 @ 15:45
1 min read

Decorating Christmas nativity scenes with foraged moss could bring fines of up €200,000 in Spain

Belen nativity scene Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
Belen nativity scene Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

THERE is little more harmless than a Christmas nativity scene showing baby Jesus in a bed of hay at the local church.

But top environmental lawyer Agustin Bocos has warned of laws prohibiting the harvest of moss from Spanish woodlands, a common element of nativity scenes or Belens as they are known in Spain.

According to Bocos, ‘the forest regulations of 1962 consider a serious infraction for the cutting or tearing of the moss from the mountainside’.

The expert said that fines for removing protected species from woodland areas range from ‘€1,000-100,000’ and up to ‘€200,000’ if harvested from a protected area.

Moss is considered a ‘cornerstone’ of woodland ecosystems, as they form a lawyer that absorbs water, prevents soil erosion, captures nitrogen from the air and serves as a shelter for microorganisms that make the soil fertile.

The lawyer admitted however there exist ‘little means’ for authorities to catch suspected criminals at present.

He suggested flower arrangers and decorators use ‘synthetic moss’ or other materials for making nativity scenes.

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Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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