The expansion of the Natura 2000 network in the Llobregat delta proposed by the Generalitat does not ensure the conservation of birds that Europe demands, according to a technical opinion commissioned by the Agricultural Institute. The business organization is opposed to this growth because, if it goes ahead, it considers that it will endanger the activity of the majority of the 250 associates of this site. The document, signed by the ornithologist Jordi Sargatal, one of the most recognized experts in the field, delimits the extension to certain areas, with the exclusion of high-yield agricultural holdings, and warns that the key to success is the management of already protected areas.
The special area for the protection of birds (ZEPA), of 935 hectares, would grow to 2,021 hectares, according to the proposal presented by the Catalan Government in June in response to the location letter that the European Commission sent two years ago. Under the threat of sanctions, he warned that the environmental value of the Delta was not being taken care of and was quick to take measures. Despite this, the proposed expansion, states the opinion commissioned by the agricultural employers’ association, “does not at all guarantee the increase in the species of wintering ducks and the 23 vertebrates that are treated on the menu”. According to the author, “above all and urgently, a management plan is needed for the current protected areas […] that can guarantee reproduction, feeding, wintering and rest during the migrations of many spices”.
According to Sargatal, who was director of the Aiguamolls de l’Empordà natural park from 1984, when it was created, until 1998, “the way to improve its populations is not to double the hectares of the ZEPAs, and even less if , as is the case, are agricultural areas”. The naturalist points out that, “if the expansion were done on other wetlands, maybe yes, by doubling the surface, the populations could be doubled”. But it is not what the Generalitat has proposed, he points out, since “the expansion would be done mostly on agricultural areas”. And he insists: “It is necessary to improve, as a matter of priority, the management of wetlands already protected and included in the current ZEPAs”.
A special case, says Sargatal, is that which affects the five species most closely linked to cultivated areas. “Here – he maintains – their presence and conservation also depend mainly on the management of certain areas, both agricultural and floodplains, rather than increasing the agricultural area within the ZEPAs”. In addition, adds the expert, “there are some species (four more) that depend a lot on the state of their populations in areas completely unrelated to the Delta”.
Sargatal delimits the extension to the areas claimed by Europe, which are the wetlands and the Ca l’Arana beach and the new course of the Llobregat. The ornithologist explains that the Generalitat’s proposal “has been made with criteria of territorial coherence in some places, to complete the current protected areas in others, or to cover them, as for example in the fields of Cal Nani and Dominguet, or in the Llanassos area, and the entire coastal strip”. Instead, he warns, “in Ca l’Inglada, Casa Groga and the Burés moors, as well as in the Ràfols area, the ZEPA declaration is proposed in high yield agricultural areas, which may cause certain misunderstandings and incompatibilities”. Herein lies the conflict with the field owners, as they see the conditions that this protection would impose on them to continue working competitively as incompatible. A large part of the current vegetable crops could not be maintained, they say, as well as the installation, for example, of greenhouses, in many cases essential.
The opinion defends that “it would certainly be more productive in terms of maintaining and increasing biodiversity in the Delta to establish agreements with properties to make agricultural production compatible with the production of certain species of fauna, particularly within the area already protected and subject to limitations, and this could even be financially compensated in the same way that vegetable crops are paid for”. Sargatal recalls that “the Llobregat delta must be an agriculturally productive and ecologically vibrant place, a model of how these two objectives can be made compatible, which many other similar places on the European continent can also follow”.
