The Andalusian Junta buys 7,500 hectares for birds to remain in Doñana

Doñana is thirsty for good news to alleviate its decline and this Tuesday one has arrived. The Junta de Andalucía (PP) has announced the purchase of 7,500 hectares south of the reserve to retain the thousands of birds that visit its marsh every year. Half of them, 3,200 hectares, are flooded in fish farms whose water is vital for the birds to return, and are part of the Natural Park, composed of 74,278 hectares. The Board must now decide whether to extend the National Park (54,252 hectares), the figure of greater ecological protection, to these lands that will become public ownership in exchange for 70 million euros.

The purchase of land at the southern end of the reserve, 20 kilometers from its mouth, does not solve the central problem of Doñana, the illegal wells for the cultivation of strawberries, which for decades have undermined its enormous aquifer and have made disappear the thousands of wetlands that once covered the protected area. However, the acquisition of the Veta la Palma farm, with 45 rafts flooded with between half a meter and a meter of water, brings some light, according to experts. The Andalusian president, Juan Manuel Moreno, has advanced this Tuesday the acquisition in a forum of the newspaper Abc.

"Doñana is so bad that the marsh and lagoons did not fulfill their function. The birds have stopped coming and have sought systems with water such as fish farms, rice fields or irrigation ponds. The purchase of Veta la Palma is interesting to recover the lower Guadalquivir and renaturalize the estuary. Of course, the announcement does not solve the problems of lack of flow of the park, "warns Juan José Carmona, responsible for Doñana of the WWF fund.

Veta la Palma was the area that hosted the greatest distribution of birds in Doñana, with 27,455 specimens last year, 34% of the total, according to the count of the Doñana Biological Station-CSIC, since it is not affected by the lack of rainfall because its flooding comes from the river. The bird census in 2022 was 80,880 specimens, the second worst figure of the entire historical series and far from the best time in the nineties, with 600,000 birds wintering in Doñana.

Aerial view of the Veta la Palma estate, in the Doñana marsh, in 2021. / CARLOS RUIZ (DOÑANA BIOLOGICAL STATION)

Carmona recalls that the announcement of the Board coincides with the annual meeting of the UNESCO world heritage committee in Saudi Arabia, which can pronounce on the deterioration of Doñana, a World Heritage Site. "This cannot serve as a smokescreen to protect the theft of water by agropirates, nor the approval of the anti-Doñana law [promoted by PP and Vox]," added the expert.

Since the company that owns the fish farms, the Hisparroz group, abandons fish farming, the Board buys the land to prevent the rafts from flooding, after two years of negotiation, according to Ricardo Arque, owner of the land. Of its 10,000 hectares, the Board acquires 3,200 with the 45 rafts, 4,300 with halophilic plants and natural pastures, and the businessman retains 2,500 of cereals and sunflower planted. After three decades of activity, the closure of fish farms comes due to growing commercial competition in the open sea by the Mediterranean, the rise in the price of feed and the consumption of birds, with less and less food for the rest of the park, according to Arque.

The water enters Veta la Palma pushed by the tidal current to be near the estuary of the Guadalquivir, and then a pumping station distributes the water to the ponds through a network of irrigation and drainage channels for the bass, croaker, sea bream and shrimp to grow. Apart from keeping the 45 rafts flooded, the Board foresees a restructuring plan for the area, according to sources from the Andalusian Ministry of Environment and Sustainability.

On the purchase of the Board, the Government has been cautious and optimistic. "It is going in the right direction," Teresa Ribera, third vice president and acting minister of Ecological Transition, said three times at the press conference after the Council of Ministers. But he has also warned that it is "insufficient". In addition, he stressed that it will have zero impact on the water available for the protected space. "It doesn't provide water or reduce pressure on the aquifer." Ribera, who recalled that Moreno's announcement comes after the latest threat from Unesco, has asked two things to the Junta de Andalucía: to withdraw the rule that provides for the expansion of the irrigable area in the surroundings of Doñana and to explain what has been done with the 12 million euros that the regional government has received from the recovery funds for actions in the national park.

Ecological Transition announced a shock plan for Doñana last November with 356 million, of which 100 are destined to buy agricultural farms with water rights whose owners are willing to sell. However, 10 months later the Ministry for the Ecological Transition has not specified what measures are executed or underway, and which person is in charge of the plan to guarantee its execution. The last purchase was the Los Mimbrales farm, which the Government acquired in 2015 for 35 million to free its 1,000 hectares from agricultural use. Then the Executive of Mariano Rajoy paid the hectare at 53,000 euros, and now the Board will pay 10,000 euros, highlight sources of the Board.

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