When one piece of the complex puzzle that is the Llobregat delta moves, the rest falls apart. This is what has happened once again with the PSC motion in the Parliament of Catalonia approved on Thursday with the support of Junts, Cs, PP and Vox. The text urges the Government to stop the expansion of the special protection area for birds (SPA) and to rethink the regulations of the Parc Agrari. With different nuances, Unió de Pagesos and Ecologistes en Acció regretted the initiative. On the other hand, the Agricultural Institute, which is the sector's employers' association, celebrated it.
According to the coordinator of Unió de Pagesos in Baix Llobregat, Ramon Figueras, modifying the special protection plan for the Parc Agrari “opens the door to speculation.” He explained Figueras that the current regulations protect agricultural land and said that some want to change it to “be able to build.” For some time now, the town councils of Viladecans, Gavà and Sant Boi have been considering making regulations more flexible to create, they say, an agri-food hub with technologically modern crops.
From the Union of Peasants, they are against the extension of the ZEPA. "You don't have to enter the Agricultural Park, which must be a land for agriculture", decided Figueras.
Precisely Ecologistes en Acció attacked the motion for trying to delay the extension of the SPA. “Pretending that political criteria or economic interests guide the delimitation is a perversion of the norm,” they pointed out. The entity recalled that the expansion of protected spaces is a “legal imperative” that emanates from the European Union bird directive. This growth arises in response to a letter of formal notice from the European Commission which, under threat of sanction, warns administrations that the Llobregat River delta is not sufficiently cared for.
Regarding the hypothetical change of rules in the Parc Agrari, Ecologistes en Acció considered that “it seeks to transform a model based on small, highly productive farms with a lot of labor into industrialized facilities with minimal staff and a great environmental impact.”
For its part, the Agricultural Institute, which is the sector's employers' association, evaluated the parliamentary motion “very positively.” “It shows that we were right when we stated that the economic growth of the agricultural industry and environmental protection are compatible and that the expansion of the SPA was not the solution,” said its president, Baldiri Ros.
The PSC motion also urges the carrying out of a series of long-awaited infrastructures to, among other objectives, prevent floods that damage crops. In this sense, there seems to be a certain consensus.
