When one piece of the complex puzzle that is the Llobregat delta is moved, the rest falls apart. This is what has happened once again with the PSC's motion in the Parliament of Catalonia approved on Thursday with the support of Junts, Cs, PP and Vox. The text urges the Government to slow down the expansion of the special protection zone for birds (ZEPA) and to rethink the rules of the Agricultural Park. With different nuances, Union of Farmers and Environmentalists in Action regretted the initiative. On the other hand, the Agricultural Institute, which is the sector's employer, celebrated it.
According to the coordinator of Unió de Pagesos al Baix Llobregat, Ramon Figueras, modifying the special protection plan of the Agrarian Park "opens the door to speculation". Figueras explained that the current regulations protect agricultural land and opined that some want to change it to "be able to build on it". For some time now the town councils of Viladecans, Gavà and Sant Boi de Llobregat have been considering making the regulation more flexible in order to create, as they say, an agri-food center with technologically modern crops.
The Union of Farmers is against the expansion of the ZEPA. "It must not enter the Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park, which must be land for agriculture," concluded Figueras.
Precisely, Ecologistes en Acció lashed out against the motion to try to delay the extension of the ZEPA. "Pretending that it is political criteria or economic interests that guide the delimitation is a perversion of the norm", they pointed out. The organization recalled that the expansion of protected areas is a "legal imperative" that emanates from the European Union's bird directive. The growth is born in response to a position letter from the European Commission which, under threat of sanction, warns the administrations that the delta of the Llobregat river is not sufficiently cared for.
Regarding the hypothetical change in the rules that currently govern the Baix Llobregat Agrarian Park, Ecologistes en Acció considered that "it is intended to transform a model based on small, highly productive farms with a lot of labor into industrialized facilities with a personal minimum and a great environmental impact".
For its part, the Agricultural Institute, which is the sector's employer, assessed the parliamentary motion "very positively". "It shows that we were right when we affirmed that the economic growth of the agricultural industry and environmental protection are compatible and that the expansion of the ZEPA was not the solution," explained the president, Baldiri Ros.
The PSC motion also calls for a series of long-awaited infrastructure to be carried out to, among other objectives, prevent floods that destroy crops. In this sense, there seems to be a certain consensus.
