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ARCHIVED - Regional Government gazumps ecologists to buy Cabo Cope in Águilas
At one time this area was intended to become a macro leisure development complete with golf course and holiday housing
On Thursday the regional cabinet gave its formal approval for plans to purchase thirteen fincas which together make a 264 hectare plot of land within the area of Cabo Cope in Águilas to move ahead, finally gazzumping ecologist organisation, the Fundación ANSE.
ANSE had announced their purchase of the land in April 2020, in order to guarantee the protection of the headland (and the regional park of Cabo Cope and Puntas de Calnegre) once and for all after the area was threatened in the early years of this century by the proposed Marina de Cope development: this mega-project would not have occupied the headland itself but a large area just to the north of it, and was ruled illegal by the courts after it was deemed to include areas of protected land.
The land concerned includes almost all of the mountainous terrain of Cabo Cope, the 13 plots previously owned by Bankia (formerly Caja Madrid) which were later passed onto the books of the “bad bank” Sareb.
ANSE had negotiated a bargain price for the land of 500,000 euros, after the regional government had previously shown its disinterest in purchasing the land for three times the final price, when the Marina de Cope development plans had finally been ruled illegal by the courts.
At one point, when President Valcárcel was in power, this development had been one of the star projects promoted by the then regional Minister for Culture and Tourism Pedro Cruz (who was also the driving force behind the failed Paramount Park project) at the same time as several major projects designed to boost tourism were underway, including the construction of Corvera airport.
At one time Marina de Cope was to include 9,000 homes, various hotels and sports facilities including at least one golf course, as well as an artificially created inland harbour and marina.
However, once the lengthy court battle to stop the development had concluded, the land ceased to be a valuable speculative asset and became once again an unspoilt area of natural beauty and a long stretch of virgin coastline which lies within a protected area, and as by this point, the property crash had stalled developments of this nature, the land value plummeted.
Once the property reverted to the Sareb, attempts were made to sell it to the regional government for conversion into a public natural park, but the price rquested by the bank was deemed to be too high and the project was left on the back burner, as protected land of this nature cannot be developed for commercial use, or built on, so is virtually worthless to anybody other than the government.
However, environmental organisation, ANSE, was concerned that the land should be protected as a natural space, so negotiated a deal, with the help of the World Wildlife Fund as a backer, to buy the land for 500,000 euros, the idea being that the purchase would be achieved through a crowdfunding appeal.
Director Pedro García said that the intention of the organisation was to prevent the arrival of “speculative funds” interested in re-activating the plans to build Marina de Cope, and to lobby for the approval of the Natural Resources Land Ordinance plan which was shelved in order to allow the development to go ahead.
The sale was agreed and the good news that the land would be protected, published.
Reading about this in the media, the regional government quickly decided that it was, after all, interested in purchasing the land, and applied its right under Article 40 of Law 42/2007 of December 13th of the Natural Heritage and Biodiversity Law to have the first right of purchase on protected land, and gazzumped the ecologists, snapping up the bargain plot of land for the knockdown price of 500,000 euros itself.
On Thursday, the cabinet formally approved the purchase, allocating an additional 140,000 euros of expenses to cover all of the necessary costs.
Work is also underway to turn the coastal waters of Cabo Cope into a marine reserve in order to encourage diving tourism and protect the coast. The proyecto de la Reserva Marina de Interés Pesquero de Cabo Cope is being developed alongside the fishermen's cofradía of Águilas and Department of Environment.
Cabo Cope
On a clear day this imposing headland is visible from as far away as Cabo Tiñoso and La Azohía at the eastern end of the bay of Mazarrón, rising to a height of 242 metres above the village of Calabardina. It is also part of the natural park of Cabo Cope and Puntas de Calnegre, declared a Site of Community Interest on account of its tectonic and geomorphological complexity, its singular vegetation, the presence of endangered species and the existence of sites of archaeological and historical interest.
The water in this part of the Mediterranean is considered a perfect habitat for various animal species including groupers, conger eels, barracuda, octopus and corvina drum, and is also home to extensive posidonia sea grass meadows as well as being suitable for white corals.
In addition, the headland is home to a ZEPA birdlife protection zone, with the avian species present including the peregrine falcon, the Bonelli’s eagle and the trumpeter finch. Other fauna includes the spur-thighed tortoise, while the vegetation consists largely of semi-arid plants such as dwarf palms and an isolated group of Phoenician junipers.
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