Take care of the landscape and the paisanaje. It is a beautiful play on words that, in the mouth of Sonia Monferrer, acquires enormous value. It will be because she has dedicated a good part of her life to fulfilling this objective. It will be because she contributes, on her own land and with all her senses, to preserve biodiversity: to protect spaces, to save species. It will be because in an extraordinary natural setting in the province of Castellón, such as the Prat de Cabanes-Torreblanca Natural Park, one of the largest wetlands in the Valencian Community, he has put all his heart as a masovera. A huge one.
But to understand the important work that this dedicated woman does from the Global Nature Foundation, with which she shares passion and values, we must first give wetlands their corresponding relevance: the most productive habitats on the planet and also the most threatened. To begin with, they constitute one of the fundamental systems for the conservation of biodiversity. In fact, more than 40% of threatened species depend at some point on the biological cycle of wetlands, reports from the Foundation. Even so, in Spain it is estimated that, over the last century, 60% of these areas have been lost. And to continue, wetlands help mitigate climate change. But it is Sonia Monferrer who best explains its benefits.
“When we think of wetlands, the first thing that comes to mind is water. Here, the wetlands have an area for collecting water, a filter, which allows us to keep it clean, but also allows farmers and ranchers to produce a large amount of food in this area”, shares the environmental technician and adds: “ They are a place where biodiversity is very important and, in addition, they help us mitigate climate change. The latter is precisely a project that we are working on at the Foundation, 'Wetlands for Climate', to show that wetlands can help us in this fight”.
Until the last century, the Valencian coastline was dotted with a string of coastal wetlands where fresh and salt water mixed to create areas of extremely high biological productivity. That is why there is not a single day that Sonia Monferrer does not work to recover what she once was. Always, with the same illusion of the first day. And it's been a few years now between the wetlands of the Prat de Cabanes-Torreblanca Natural Park. “I am a pedagogue and I have been working for 15 years in the Ministry of the Environment focused on Natural Parks. Later I was lucky enough to find the Foundation, with which I have been with for five years, greatly enjoying this type of place”, she celebrates. And she can do it with pride, as she and her colleagues boast of having helped protect more than 14,000 hectares in more than 100 wetlands.
Those of the Prat de Cabanes-Torreblanca Natural Park are made up of artificial lagoons that have arisen as a result of the extraction of peat, in a mining operation that has already expired. “It has left us this magnificent landscape that allows a huge variety of birds to come,” he says. And to take care of these wetlands and their inhabitants, the Global Nature Foundation maintains a collaboration agreement with the Torreblanca town hall. "It allows us to work in the habitat and also with the species that inhabit it," he details.
Precisely in the alliances are a good part of the solutions. And it is here where the initial sentence of the protagonist makes sense: take care of the landscape and the peasantry. “When we want to protect a space, above all, what we have to do is count on the peasantry, not only on the landscape, that is, count on the people: farmers, ranchers, tourism, the people who live in the people... We have to create alliances”, he assures. To ensure that all these social agents are aware of the value of the landscape that surrounds them, and take care of it.
She is also dedicated to providing information on environmental importance from Espai Natura, the epicenter of the Prat de Cabanes-Torreblanca Natural Park. From there, she and her colleagues attend schools, train teachers, volunteer and do activities every weekend for tourists, who teach respect for the natural park. Those important alliances that Sonia Ferrer alludes to have several protagonists. There are the traditional ranchers, since it is key that they take their herds of cows there.
The cattle allow the opening of clearings in the wetlands, at the same time that these offer good quality pastures to the ranchers. In this way, a transhumance that had been lost in the last quarter of a century is recovered. With this livestock use, the Foundation has managed to limit the growth of marshy vegetation such as reeds, and create a greater diversity of environments for flora and fauna. Added to this is the planting of numerous plants, between shrubby and aquatic.
Sonia Monferrer also values the participation of farmers to promote organic farming and thus preserve water quality. But, in addition to the global vocation of maintaining the health of the lagoons for the conservation of their species, there are the specific projects in which the environmental technician and the Foundation work. Like the recovery of rice fields; the protection of the dunes so that the plover can breed, a small bird in danger of extinction; the construction of shelters for bats or a volunteer work in the conservation of the European pond turtle, a species considered vulnerable at the national level that has its habitat in the Prat de Cabanes-Torreblanca Natural Park.
The landscape and the people who inhabit it constitute a magical pairing that makes everything possible. And part of those people is herself. Sonia Monferrer is not short of words to stir consciences that help preserve the planet in all its possible ways. “Even if it is out of pure selfishness, if we take care of the planet, of the health of our ecosystem, that will help us to be better and healthier”, she affirms convincingly.
In her case, she has chosen to protect wetlands to do her (giant) grain of sand. Like Naturgy, it has opted for other action plans for the protection of biodiversity. Because the responsibility of caring for natural habitats and their species belongs to everyone: citizens, institutions and companies.
The company, in this case in collaboration with the Global Nature Foundation, has found in the plantation of an ecological lavandin field in Guadalajara the solution to generate a favorable environment for the ricoti skylark, a bird in danger of extinction. Recovering their nesting and breeding areas is the objective of the initiative. And this is something that, with the increase in the insect community due to lavandin, can be achieved. But it is not the only Naturgy measure in this field.
The company has converted its electrical safety lanes into a multifunctional space in which, in addition to operating electricity transport, environmental objectives are met. For example, with a study that shows that they are an excellent refuge for pollinators, whose populations are declining worldwide, or as a space for grazing with native cattle to control vegetation, a new more sustainable model with less impact on environment.
