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The landscape of the Bardenas Reales is truly marvelous, as can be seen in this series of photographs that I captured this fall for La Vanguardia’s Readers’ Photos.
We are in front of a semi-desert area of ??41,845 hectares that extends through the southeast of Navarra, although the landscape also extends through the territory of the Aragonese towns of Sádaba, Tauste and Ejea de los Caballeros.
Las Bardenas lacks urban centers, its vegetation is very scarce and the multiple water currents that cross the territory have a markedly irregular flow, remaining dry most of the year.
Las Bardenas Reales are not part of any municipal area. Historically, the possession of the lands belonged to the crown and its exploitation, use and benefit was granted to a group of Navarrese legal entities called “congozantes”, whose number since the end of the 17th century was fixed at 22, among which there are 19 municipalities. , two valleys and a monastery.
All of them form the Community of Bardenas Reales, a public law entity in charge of the ownership and use of the area.
The climate that characterizes this area is continental Mediterranean, with scarce, irregular, torrential rainfall predominating. This leads to a long dry season, with warm summers and cold winters.
Regarding fauna, there are five species in danger of extinction, two species sensitive to the alteration of their habitat, 10 in the vulnerable category, eight of special interest and 13 of special interest, but are considered insufficiently known. To get an idea of ??its richness, there are 10 bat species represented in the Bardenas alone. And in birds we find a hundred species, especially birds of prey and steppe birds.
At the vegetation level, it is characterized by aridity, which has allowed the maintenance of communities and species of a steppe nature. For this reason, “the Bardenas Reales are considered one of the paradigmatic examples of the Iberian steppes, along with Monegros.”
