Scientists, environmental technicians and conservation groups have raised the tone of their complaints and protests against the Government’s intention to change the name of the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda to satisfy the demands of farmers. The announcement of this name change was confirmed by Councilor David Mascort after the interview he held with the farmers on the occasion of the mobilization they are maintaining to gain influence in this department.

The Government is now studying this name change, so that the Climate Action department could incorporate new nouns (perhaps “Agriculture” and “Ramaderia”) to meet these demands.

For the sectors that oppose this change, it would be interpreted as a way to reinforce the preeminence of the agricultural world in this department.

It is not a nominalist debate, but a substantial one, and not at all anecdotal since the unrest aroused (among these sectors) by creating a department where a subordination of environmental protection policies to agricultural policies is perceived has never disappeared.

The Spanish Society of Ornithology (SEO/BirdlLife) and the Federació Ecologistes de Catalunya (which in turn brings together a dozen entities) have published a manifesto in which they highlight that this Government plan is “a step back in the rethinking of the agrarian model” and denounce that with this change the Catalan Administration “relegates environmental issues to a secondary role”, all of which is “a clear indication of the direction undertaken” in the “decisions that will be made regarding the conservation of biodiversity ”.

The promoters of the manifesto demand the restitution of the Department of the Environment or the creation of a department of Ecological Transition (detached from Agriculture) with the rank of vice president, as occurs in the central administration, to highlight the new priorities.

“The two crises that condition everything are the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis. If we do not try to solve these crises we cannot solve the others,” says Cristina Sánchez, SEO/BirdLife delegate in Catalonia.

“All other policies, whether water, economic or transportation, have to be taken into account,” adds Sánchez, convinced that the vice presidential formula would help “accompany all other policies” and avoid the current “situation of confrontation.” “We need a specific department for ecological policies, which has authority, which is strong and with clear environmental objectives,” she adds.

The platform El futur és ara (Renovem-nos, Oikia, Ecoserveis, Greenpeace, Revo, Conservació.cat..) has published another manifesto in which it asks to divest the agricultural areas of the current Ministry of Climate Action.

The big problems, they argue, are the climate crisis and the loss of biological biodiversity, which is why they judge a ministry with strong budgets and executive capacity to be “essential”, to, among other reasons, launch the Catalan Nature Agency, approved by the Parliament in 2020 and which remains blocked.

“We agree with the farmers that Climate Action should not be in the same department as agriculture, livestock and fishing. They are specific problems that, despite being related, must be treated specifically.” says The future is Now.

“Why are they weakening the Department of Climate Action?, to please the farmers? And will they be happy with that?” This already produces hunger. We need brave policies to defend the environment”, says Sandra Carrera, director of the Nature Conservation Network (XCN), which in turn brings together 198 social entities.

David Cid (deputy of the Comuns group) considered the idea of ??changing the name of the Climate Action department “controversial”, especially “due to the moment in which it occurs, when the legislature enters its final stretch. Sources from the PSC assessed Its part, which is logical, would be separate departments for Action Climàtia and Agriculture.

Catalonia was a pioneer in 1991 with the creation of the first Spanish regional Medi Ambient department. It was the springboard that launched environmental policies with a European seal at the hands of Minister Albert Vilalta, whose legacy still endures (by implementing selective collection, the PEIN natural spaces network, air quality plans or the evaluation of the impact environmental…).

However, this impulse was weakened mandate by mandate with formulas that disfigured the genuine name or reduced it by half (Medi Ambient and Habitatge, with the tripartite, or Territori i Sostenibilitat, with Artur Mas in the presidency), a governance that It kept competencies disjointed and the application of continuous, routine or irrelevant policies (with exceptions).

But three decades later, three decades of wear and tear, have meant that the degree of influence of these policies has reached its lowest levels, according to the groups leading this protest against the name change of Acció Climàtica.

“We are missing the four basic pillars: a Biodiversity law, launching the Nature Agency (as approved by the Parliament), spending the money from the natural heritage fund on conservation and not on other things (nourished with the CO2 tax). to cars) and develop the natural heritage strategy. A real Medi Ambient department would have done this and much more. We have been demanding it since 2021 with the La Natura ets tu campaign,” says Sandra Carrera, director of the XCN.