Searching for humid areas in the Valencian Community, where the flamingo can nest without destroying the rice crops as can happen in L’Albufera de València, is the environmentalist proposal to the problem that the Valencian agricultural associations have denounced these days.
“We understand the farmers’ complaint logically, but if they are appearing in thousands it is because they do not have the capacity, because they have certain needs and in Doñana they cannot find them,” explains Rosa Más, biologist and animal activist at the NGO Animal Save. The specialist proposes that the Valencian Administration enable new spaces where they can nest and even pressure the Andalusian Government to improve the situation in the Andalusian marshes. Likewise, her colleague in the NGO Diego Nevado asks that “all possible ethical measures be applied to solve the problem, thinking of them as individuals and not as a nuisance.”
“Flamingos have no special interest in searching for rice, the cheapest function would be to provide them with areas where they could live,” he argues. He proposes preparing your transfer to the numerous ponds that dot the geography, such as the ponds of Almenara or the Marjal de Pego-Oliva, El Fondo de Elx, the Salinas de Santa Pola, or the salt lagoons of La Mata and Torrevieja.
SEO/Birdlife has also spoken out about the situation after complaints from agricultural associations. “It is normal that they are there due to the poor state of other wetlands,” the SEO/Birdlife delegate in the Valencian Community, Mario Giménez, tells EFE.
“It will be difficult for there to be more flamingos because there is no room for more in the Albufera,” adds Giménez, who recalls how in other environments with a massive presence of this type of birds, “deterrent measures” are usually applied to scare them away, such as the use of cannons that make noise or the use of scarecrows. However, he predicts “relative” success and little effectiveness in the case of L’Albufera due to the surrounding conditions.
In recent days, the Valencia City Council’s aquatic environments conservation brigade has managed to quantify up to 28,200 flamingos in the Racó de L’Olla reserve, but the council explains that “many that have arrived have left.”
This week there are about 3,000 in the Nord lagoon, which is the one that has brought together hundreds of Valencians attracted by the spectacle they draw on the landscape. As for the Llevant lagoon, which is the non-visitable area, the municipal service estimates about 4,000 specimens, a “very small” number if compared to that of days ago, they reason.
For the councilor of Devesa-Albufera, José Vicente Gosálbez Payá (Vox), the fact that L’Albufera attracts such a number of flamingos constitutes “a true success, because of all the wetlands they have chosen precisely the one in València.” He assures the councilor that “the benign nature of our climate and the richness of the lagoon have been the key.”
A situation that is causing a large number of Valencians to approach the Natural Park these days, which is why yesterday the councilor of the Municipal Socialist Group Elisa Valía asked the mayor María José Catalá to increase the frequency of buses that go to L ‘Albufera so that “people who want to go see the flamingos have a real alternative to the car and we can avoid the collapse of the Natural Park.”
Valía warned that the arrival of this species is a phenomenon that is repeated “every year” and that it is increasing every time as a consequence of climate change, which is why he calls on the City Council to create an action plan with the park’s technicians that allows take measures to preserve local fauna and flora.
