Walter Finch
KING Charles III’s National Day message to Gibraltar congratulating the territory on its conservation work was met with a scathing response from Spanish ecologists.
The British king called Gibraltar a ‘treasured member of the United Kingdom family’ and heralded the ‘bond’ between the two peoples in a letter that Chief Minister Fabian Picardo read out during his speech in Casemates Square.
Charles went on to praise Gibraltar as ‘a crucial crossroads for wildlife migration’ in the region.
“I commend you all for your efforts on nature conservation and nature-based solutions,” the king wrote.
“Gibraltar’s work in these areas, protecting over thirty per cent of the territory as marine and terrestrial nature reserves, and developing climate change and travel strategies, and initiatives such as converting car parking spaces to green parks, serve as excellent examples to others.”
Gibraltar’s government takes care to warn its citizens when the nesting season is under way between March and June each year as part of the Nature Protection Act, 1991.
However, ecologists from Verdemar Ecologistas en Accion slammed the territory’s environmental record.
Activist Antonio Muñoz Sencilla gave King Charles’ message short shrift in communications with the Olive Press.
“Let’s see,” he began, “they have filled in almost two square kilometres of the Bay of Algeciras,” in reference to the Ocean Village and Marina Bay developments in the 1990s and early 2000s which reclaimed land to create residential and commercial spaces.
“To the east, they have frantic fuel transfers, continuous shipwrecks, fuel spills, and landfills in the Eastern Strait Special Conservation Zone (ZEC) negatively affecting protected species.”
The ‘frantic fuel transfers’ refers to Gibraltar’s booming business of bunkering, in which ships refuel at sea.
The cargo ship OS 35 in Catalan Bay collided with an LNG tanker near Gibraltar, in September 2022 and its wreckage is still visible from the Rock.
Verdemar have already complained about the land reclamation project being carried out in the Eastern Strait Special Conservation Zone (ZEC), an ecological zone that is home to protected species.
They claim it directly threatens the patela ferruginia, a type of limpet ‘with the same protection as the Iberian lynx’ that is only known to grow in the area.
There are also concerns that creation of a breakwater on Gibraltar’s east side could have knock-on effects down the Spanish coastline, causing a loss of sand in the beaches of La Linea and San Roque, and potentially affecting fishing and tourism.
