The decision of the Andalusian Government to postpone its bill to legitimize illegal irrigation in the area of ??Doñana has a very substantial economic counterpart. The Government has committed to investing 350 million euros in a plan baptized with an illuminating name: Framework of actions for sustainable territorial development in the area of ??influence of the Doñana National Park.
The (“temporary”) resignation of the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno Bonilla, from his controversial parliamentary initiative opens the door to a normalization of relations with the central Administration. And this is a first step on the path of an unprecedented pact in the making aimed at recovering this enclave of great ecological value, now in a critical situation due to the overexploitation of groundwater and the drought derived from climate change.
The unexpected political thaw between the Junta de Andalucía and the Ministry for the Ecological Transition has as a key factor the Government’s promise to allocate these 350 million euros. “This amount will go to promote territorial and economic development activities that are compatible with the preservation of Doñana, to new initiatives or to modernize or adapt existing ones,” Hugo Morán, Secretary of State for the Environment, explains to this newspaper.
The new plan adds to the framework of actions that the central Administration is already carrying out in Doñana (with a budget also of 350 million) to defend its water resources. They are investments that were launched to solve the degradation of this place (recovery of water courses, replacement of underground flows with surface waters, elimination of underground exploitations or closure of illegal wells…) and they are the response to the infringement opened by the EU and the condemnation of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, among other international pressures.
The lines of action have yet to be identified, but the initiatives can cover areas such as agriculture, livestock or even tourism or education, since the plan is presented as “an endowment of the entire Government” and not only of the Ministry, explains Morán. Those 350 million is an “investment ceiling”, although everything may end up depending on the territory’s capacity to generate investment projects.
The dialogue that has begun foresees that representatives of the two administrations will hold regular meetings for a month to give definitive shape to the content of the plan, so that later they would begin to think about organizing the lines of financing for these projects. The Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno Bonilla, justified his decision with calls for dialogue. “We have begun a dialogue that I hope and pray will be fruitful, honest, sincere and sensible,” he said. The administrations, for the first time, seem fully convinced that recovering Doñana requires a shared effort and that it is not possible to advance in a scenario of confrontation.
For all this, we want to convey to the various social actors a proposal that is “exciting” and prevent the territory from falling into monoculture projects exclusively dependent on dwindling water resources.
“We cannot continue in a scenario that goes further in the depletion (of the aquifer) that Doñana already suffers as a consequence of the pressures caused by human activities, aggravated by climate change. Resources are decreasing and there can be no increasing pressure. Activity and employment must be created without being subject to the dynamics of climate change,” says the Secretary of State.
The Board’s decision to “postpone” the bill, intended to legitimize illegal irrigation in the Doñana area, eliminates a first obstacle to the agreement.
The PP-A and Vox bill could entail the regularization of some 1,900 hectares (by granting titles of irrigable agricultural land to land that had been left out of the so-called Strawberry Pact of 2004, classified today as dryland or forest land) , according to WWF.
Multiple factors could have influenced the decision taken by the Board, but especially the growing pressure from the European Commission, which has warned of the risk that the ruling of the European Court of Justice could become a million-dollar fine against Spain for failing to comply with European directives. that force him to protect Doñana.
The Board should also not be oblivious to the international calls of UNESCO, which in its last meeting has once again threatened to stop cataloging this place as a World Heritage site.
“Let’s not forget that this whole situation can also harm the strawberry sector, at a time when marketing contracts are being negotiated,” says Juanjo Carmona, spokesperson for WWF, which has started these complaint campaigns in Europe about the use unsustainable risk water in Huelva. “No one can be immune to these warnings,” say the central Administration.
Doñana’s “sustainable development” plan will logically respect the legitimate rights of farmers with allocated water resources, but it seeks to make it clear that in Doñana “we have reached the limit of irrigated growth capacity”, so “we must explore other ways,” says Morán. Minister Teresa Ribera has reiterated that “the data are stubborn: there cannot be even one more irrigated hectare.”
The Doñana national park is now subject to a kind of “assisted breathing” regime since it receives external water resources from other basins (Tinto-Odiel-Piedras), which is atypical for a natural space that must be recognized for its own values. natural that it treasures.
“We want to comply with the ruling of the European Court of Justice and give stability to the brand of Doñana products, an issue that worries farmers at a time when the sustainability of their mode of production is being questioned,” concludes the Secretary of State. .
The Sustainability Minister and spokesperson for the Board, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, said that there is no “agreement” but rather “a beginning of negotiation.” “We are waiting for this change in the Government’s attitude. They always demanded that the dialogue should be conditional on the withdrawal of the bill. The bill has not been withdrawn, but we have found that space for dialogue that we have always demanded,” he assured.
