The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) has reiterated its concern about the proposed changes in regional legislation on irrigation in the Doñana aquifer, which "endanger its continuity on the list of World Heritage Site" of this biosphere reserve.
UNESCO, in a statement published on its website, has recalled that, in recent years, the World Heritage Committee (governing body of the World Heritage Convention, made up of 21 of the 195 States parties to the convention), has warned periodically about "the overexploitation of the aquifer and its possible impacts on the site".
Thus, he pointed out that the increasing drying up of the earth's water masses "directly affects the populations of aquatic birds and is aggravated by the recent exceptional drought, which puts the exceptional biodiversity of the Doñana National Park at serious risk".
After a follow-up mission by experts from Unesco, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the World Heritage Committee requested Spain in 2021 to continue with the urgent implementation of the 'Plan Strawberry' in its current form.
For this reason, Unesco has warned that the legislative changes proposed at the regional level by the Junta de Andalucía to this plan are, therefore, "contrary to the requests of the Committee". The Junta de Andalucía presented a plan to expand the irrigated area of the crown that surrounds the park, while Unesco had asked the Government of Spain to close the already existing illegal wells.
The next session of the World Heritage Committee (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, September 10-25, 2023) will examine the state of conservation of the site and the measures to be adopted will be assessed based on the information provided by Spain and also their own experts.
These can range from the appointment of a follow-up mission to the inclusion of Doñana on the list of World Heritage in Danger, a phase prior to its declassification from a list on which it entered in 1994. In addition, since 1980 it has also been a biosphere reserve . This last measure will be adopted if the Committee "considers that the essential characteristics of the reserve are threatened by determined, specific and immediate dangers," the organization said.
