Brussels, (EFE).- Several environmental NGOs delivered this Wednesday to the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, more than 260,000 signatures against the parliamentary initiative of PP and Vox to regularize irrigation in the North Crown of the Doñana Park, in Andalusia .
The signatories oppose the Andalusian regional government’s bill. That it could legalize up to 1,900 hectares of illegal farms in the surroundings of the Doñana natural park, Ecologistas en Acción, WWF, Salvemos Doñana, SEO/BirdLife and Wemove indicated in a statement.
Those responsible for these platforms meet today with Sinkevicius to convey to him the “serious situation” that Doñana is experiencing. And to ask him to keep the pressure on the Junta de Andalucía and the autonomous community. In order to prevent this bill from going ahead.
“If the Doñana National Park becomes extinct, it will be a huge failure for the European Commission, not only for Andalusia and Spain. For this reason, we come to ask and demand that the Commission act with all the force and with all the means at its disposal to reverse this situation”. The SEO/BirdLife representative, Carlos Dávila, assured EFE.
Adapt to climate change
Dávila remarked that “it is time” to change the model and adapt to climate change. And he urged public administrations to act jointly to try that “Doñana does not become extinct.”
The NGOs warned that the survival of this protected natural space, which is one of the most important wetland and biodiversity reserves in Europe, is already at risk due to global warming and the overexploitation of aquifers and surface waters due to the increase of the irrigated lands in its surroundings.
In fact, the coordinator of Agriculture of WWF Spain, Felipe Fuentes, assured that this year Doñana is totally dry:.
This occurs due to climatic consequences, but also to some very clear causes rooted in the illegal use of water,” he explained to EFE.
In this sense, the spokespersons for these organizations recalled that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has already condemned Spain for destroying the nature of Doñana. By allowing the abusive extraction of water for intensive agriculture.
A precedent for wetlands
For this reason, Fuentes considered the Andalusian parliament’s proposal “inadmissible” and urged the European Commission to act as soon as possible.
“They are already telling us that important economic sanctions can be opened and that we can even lose European funds. It is time for the Commission to really put in a lot more effort and ensure the conservation of this protected area”, he added.
The conservation organizations considered that, if the bill goes ahead, “it will be one of the biggest ecological attacks perpetrated by an administration in the history of Doñana.”
Thus, they considered that if the Commission stops this law, it would set a “fundamental precedent” for the rest of wetlands and landscapes in Europe. Faced with the devastation that many protected natural areas in Europe are suffering, “always with political or economic interests”. EFE