Saving luxury villas or pirate risks: If the law that protects nature worries you, it is changing

When the environment gets in the way, the message seems to be that “anything goes,” says SEO-Birdlife’s delegate in Doñana, Carlos Dávila. In just seven days, the parliaments of Andalusia and Extremadura will draft regulations to legalize what was previously illegal due to non-compliance with environmental safety regulations. Luxurious urbanization on Isla de Valdecañas and illegal irrigation around Doñana National Park.

In both cases, the regulations prevented, on the one hand, the construction of a complex of chalets, hotels and golf courses on an island in the middle of a special protection zone; On the other hand, the installation of irrigation farms in the outskirts of Donana. In addition, in both cases, the judges ruled against him. Extremadura has already approved its ad hoc law. Andalucia handles it with an emergency route.

“The rule of law is very weak in these areas and this is a burden for environmental protection,” analyzes environmental law specialist Pedro Brufao. “And this is very destructive, because it creates a situation where the prosecutor’s office acts or not, it doesn’t matter, because they will legislate later.

In Extremadura, on Thursday, the plenary session approved the proposed law that approves the 55 Special Protection Zones that have already existed and have been in operation for decades and whose articles include a second final provision that says: “Constructions and buildings are completely carried out on the lands known as Isla de Valdecañas (…) is legalized”. They attribute the luxury urbanization (185 villas built, almost 400 more in the pipeline, a luxury hotel and golf course) to “overriding reasons of public interest of the first order”.

What happens is that the resort was ordered in 2011 by the Supreme Court of Extremadura to return the land to its “original state”. Then those magistrates admitted that only what was not finished should be demolished. However, in February 2022, the Supreme Court ordered that all the constructions be removed because they were not built with the necessary permits.

Now, while this latest decision is before the Constitutional Court, Extremadura has created a law to bypass the magistrates’ decision. “By legalizing Isla de Valdecanas with the stroke of a pen, they suddenly miss res judicata,” Jaime Doreste, one of the lawyers of Ecologistas en Acción, which won the case in court, told elDiario.es.

“Valdecanas became illegal because of missing documents, because the environmental impact assessment was not done well,” recalls Doreste. Furthermore, in order to legalize urbanization, they have created an absurd situation that works against them: thousands of farmers’ claims will be protected by this law.

The lawyer points out that the recently approved norm states that protected environmental zones, which were used in various places to refuse exploitation requests, did not exist by law: “The refusal will be appealed and compensation will be deserved because. They denied petitions under environmental protections that the law now says did not exist.”

The new standard clearly states: “Recent confirmation that 55 areas of the Autonomous Community of Extremadura that should have been declared Special Bird Protection Areas (ZEPA) were never actually declared. Although they were appointed and sent to the Spanish government to be sent to the European Commission (as was done).

Specialist Brufao explains that “there are more cases where legislation is made to avoid punishment. From the extension of the coastal law that served the ENCE plant in Pontevedra, Andalusia to the change of land law to save more than 200,000 self-build houses”. And, in his opinion, “this is serious, because it makes court work useless.” It also “removes those who have gone to court and won the right to punishment. Eliminating effective judicial protection,” he says.

The Junta de Extremadura tried to legalize Isla de Valdecañas after magistrates ruled against it. A few days after the first decision in 2011, the regional parliament changed the land law to allow such constructions. The Constitutional Court canceled their maneuver in 2019. In March 2022, the council proposed to Congress to change the rules to save Isla de Valdecanas. Then came the law that was passed this week.

Meanwhile, in the Andalusian parliament, the PP and Vox hastily registered a law to legalize irrigated agricultural land, which is omitted from the current planning regulations for the perimeter of the protected area of ​​Donana. The text says that he wants to save 650 farms that produce 100 million euros, without a support account.

“This is political blindness…”, says Carlos Dávila. “They don’t seem to understand that the situation here is critical, with the worst biodiversity data ever recorded,” he adds. Politicians will make decisions in favor of Donana, not against her.

The WWF organization confirms that the project does not have the accounts and cartography of the 650 farms that they believe do not exist. WWF has already calculated that the previous proposal, presented in February 2022 by PP, Ciudadanos and Vox, amnesty more than 1,400 irrigated hectares that used water without a permit.

“It distorts everything the science and the European Commission have been saying and puts farmers at risk,” says Dávila. “And that creates a perverse effect: Do whatever you want, we’re going to legalize it.”

Brufao explains that such legalization also hinders the “water and land use” lawsuits going on there.

In the case of Doñana, the regulations that created the Irrigation Management Plan were approved in 2014, after seven years of preparation. The intensive industry that collects water from aquifers has ended three of the five underground deposits declared in poor condition. In July 2022, Europe condemned Spain for not protecting Doñana.

But an electoral dispute in Huelva between the PP and Vox – which are seeking to end the PSOE’s traditional dominance in the towns of El Condado, which surrounds the national park – prompted this legislative initiative.

A previous proposal, almost identical, collapsed when Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla called regional elections. “This time there is no way out. This time, the law will come out if there is no brake from the European Commission,” says the SEO delegate. The Environmental Transition Ministry said it had asked political groups not to present the proposal and that “it will refer to the Constitutional Court anything that endangers Donana”.

Pedro Brufao recalls that this is not the only environmental regulation that has been violated in Doñana: “Since 1999, a decree has been passed to reconnect the Torre branch and Guadiamar courses to the wetlands so that the water can reach them. And so far it has not been done.”

“We have an obligation to take care of the World Heritage Site,” concludes Dávila. “And it can’t depend on municipal elections.”

Source: El Diario

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