In Spain last week I talked to some environmentalists about the politics of nature conservation in Spain. Some of it sounded quite familiar. They were concerned about the Juncker review of the Birds and Habitats Directives; they felt that their government was not doing enough, and they were nervous about the results of the regional elections in May (although Andalucia, where we were, is one of the regions that doe not have elections this year).
Spain has a national government of the Right at the moment and I got the impression that it had nibbled away at the protection given to the environment in the name of boosting the economy, as has the Westminster government. In spring birds sing all over Europe, in times of austerity governments downgrade environmental protection.
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Dear Mark, just to point out that the region of Andalucía (Spain) have had also elections quite recently (past 22 march). Left government won again (PSOE) but will need coalitions and agreements on different issues. Unfortunately downgrade environmental protection is not only a question of the right national party (PP) and Andalucia is facing in the past years very serious environmental threats including some afecting Doñana National Park and sorrunding marshes. Thanks.
Ramon – muchas gracias. Good to see you last week.
My brother is a bird guide in the Catalan area of Spain (http://www.catalanbirdtours.com/) and many Nature Reserves around there are only open 2 days per week now as Reserve Rangers were one of the first things to go when cut backs were implemented.
Hola…I’ve just retired to Andalucia and hoping to get some serious birdwatching in as many places as I can get to with my monster Yeti.
I am a little bit disturbed at the news that successive left and right leaning governments here have yet to learn that environmental protection in all areas of life, is what is going to save mankind from himself. So I will be doing my bit to recycle/repair/reuse and generally persuade others to leave as small a footprint on this part of the planet as possible…including myself with my size 46 feet.