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Date Published: 17/05/2023

Outrage as Andalusia greenlights project to build golf resort on drought-stricken nature reserve

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El Parque Nacional de Doñana is a wetland reserve for many protected birds and other species

Outrage as Andalusia greenlights project to build golf resort on drought-stricken nature reserve

The Doñana National Park in southwest Spain’s Huelva and Seville provinces was already mired in controversy due to a plan by the regional government, the Junta de Andalucía, to allow more irrigation for water-intensive strawberry farms there in the midst of a drought that was threatening the protected plant and wildlife species found there.

Now, the Junta has gone a step further and decreed that it’s alright to build a huge residential development with a hotel, 300 villas and golf course right next to Doñana, even though the EU is considering declaring the area an “endangered World Heritage Site”.

On April 12, 2023, the Andalusian regional government controlled by the centre-right PP party issued a positive environmental impact report for the construction of this “macro-urban development” with a golf course, less than five kilometres from the protected area.

In response, the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO) of the centre-left PSOE party in power at the national level, said, “It would be incomprehensible for the Junta to authorise golf courses and macro tourism projects at the gates of Doñana at this time of drought that Spain is going through, especially in the Guadalquivir basin.”

The third vice-president and minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, was even harsher in a Tweet, saying, “Yes. They’ve gone mad.”

Sí. Se ha vuelto loca. https://t.co/YrukVgkZx8
— Teresa Ribera 🌹 (@Teresaribera) May 16, 2023

Indeed, it seems like a curiously self-endangering move for the Junta just weeks away from decisive local elections on May 28.

The report, meanwhile, seems to suggest there is enough water for the project: “Taking into account that the demand for the 2027 horizon is below the estimates of the Hydrological Planning and that the provision of current consumption and growth does not exceed 250 litres per inhabitant per day allocated by the hydrological planning for the municipality of Trebujena, the availability of water resources in the terms proposed is reported.”

The project not only borders Doñana, one of Europe’s most important biodiversity sanctuaries, but also the Guadalquivir estuary, another protected area.

Related news: Greenpeace warns of an environmental disaster waiting to happen in Río Tinto, Andalucía

Spain has no shortage of residential golf resorts and complexes, and indeed since the 2008 financial crash there are still several large and important golf courses in the country that have not been fully redeveloped or reopened.

The plans for this project in Doñana date back to 2003, when the local town of Trebujena signed an agreement with the developer Bernard Devos, who refers to himself as ‘the crazy Belgian’ and is famous for his determination to transfer the hotel-golf-villa model to Los Barrios and Trebujena.

Environmental group Ecologists in Action have been monitoring the development of the issue for years and this Tuesday issued a statement condemning the Andalusian government’s actions: “The Environmental Declaration approved by the Junta is totally illegal, as it does not have the mandatory report on the risk of flooding in the area (the whole area is in a flood zone), its effects on the EU’s Natura 2000 Network, which includes the Guadalquivir estuary and Doñana, have not been evaluated, and none of the 900 complaints presented against the project have been answered.”

The decision on whether or not to proceed to the next step of building the resort is now in the hands of the Confederación Hidrográfica del Guadalquivir (CHG), the water management body for the area which is part of the central government in Madrid.

So far, they have not given any indication of whether they approve or disapprove of the plan.

You might also like: Activists in Spain call on Greta Thunberg to help get Sweden to pay for historical mining disaster

Image: Junta de Andalucía

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