In the catalog of threatened species in Galicia there are 201: 76 are classified as in danger of extinction and the other 125 as vulnerable. But only three of them have a recovery plan – the one established for those that are in danger of extinction – or conservation –for the vulnerable–, a requirement contained in Galician law itself. “There is a total passivity of the administration that is going to cause more extinctions,” warns Roi Cuba, biologist and president of the environmental association Adega. The Xunta began the process years ago for dozens of these plans, but most of them were left in a drawer and species such as toniña (porpoise), the Cincenta tartar (montagu’s harrier) or the three unique vegetables in the world that grow in the A Ulloa region (the santolina from Melide, the magarza from Barazón and the grass of love of Merino) appear on the list without a specific program having been approved for them.
The situation was put back on the table by a statement from the Official College of Biologists: “It is essential that the necessary measures be urgently and precisely defined to eliminate the danger of extinction of these species,” it claimed. One of the members, Martiño Nercellas, explains, in a conversation in which he speaks in a personal capacity with this editorial team, that the lack of plans represents “a serious risk for vulnerable and endangered species and a serious non-compliance, due to or by omission, of what is established in current legislation.”
This legislation is both the state and Galician laws on natural heritage and biodiversity, which set a period of three years to make a recovery plan from when a species becomes considered in danger of extinction and a period of five years for those that are classified as endangered. vulnerable. In Galicia, a regulation created the catalog in 2001 and a decree regulated it in 2007. The document, although with some updates, is “very obsolete,” says biologist Xabier Vázquez Pumariño, who insists that it has become outdated both by species that do not appear, but should do the opposite: populations that have improved. And, after all these years, the planned instruments have barely been applied. “Declaring a species vulnerable or in danger of extinction without doing anything, logically, cannot be,” he criticizes.
The Ministry of the Environment relativizes the importance of the instruments that the Galician law itself establishes: “The management of threatened species in Galicia is assured, regardless of whether they have their own specific conservation instrument.” The Government led by Alfonso Rueda insists that it carries out “specific monitoring to be able to carry out a periodic evaluation” and that it applies “strategies to eliminate common threat factors” to different species, among which it cites the elimination of invasive plants and animals. The situation is, however, a failure to comply with the rules and also with the word given by Alberto Núñez Feijóo as president of the Xunta when presenting the Galician natural heritage law in 2017. He then stated that the objective was that by 2020 there would be plans for recovery or conservation for 45 species among those classified as endangered or vulnerable.
Seven years later there are still the same three plans that were already in force at that time. The recovery ones, both from 2013, are those of sapoconcho (the European pond turtle, Emys orbicularis L.) and the writingta das canaveiras (the marsh notary, Emberiza schoeniclus L. subsp. Lusitanica Steinbacher). For the pillara das dunes (the snowy plover, Charadrius alexandrinus L.) a conservation plan has been in force since 2014. In 2013, the review of the plan for the brown bear began (Ursus arctos), approved in 1992 and which, with current legislation, had become obsolete. The new version has not been approved, even though experts agree that this animal, which is found again in Galicia, is an example that these tools work.
In response to the questions of this editorial, Environment insists that there are “other types of tools” that “directly affect the conservation of species” and that the management instruments of protected natural spaces, such as the Network’s master plan Natura or the natural parks have measures for wild flora and fauna and there are populations of some of the threatened species. However, the limited scope of the Natura Network is precisely one of the criticisms that biologists and ecologists direct at the Xunta. In Galicia, 12% of the territory is covered by this figure, while the State average reaches 27%.
Plans in a drawer
The work to have recovery and conservation plans for threatened species began in many cases, but most of the orders ended up in a drawer from which they never came out. Martiño Nercerllas assures that there were, in total, 45 technical assistance and service contracts. The disbursement of public funds was 500,000 euros. Of these studies, he adds, 29 were commissioned during the bipartite stage of PSdeG and BNG, which governed between 2005 and 2009. Another 16 are from the PP stage, since 2009.
Vázquez Pumariño was one of the professionals the Xunta hired for the task. He developed the plan for the Cincenta tartar (the Montagu’s harrier) and the gatafornela (the hen harrier), classified as vulnerable, although the sharp decline, he adds, should place them as in danger of extinction. Remember that, among those tendered by the bipartite, the last were delivered to the Xunta in 2009, the year in which, with the help of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the PP returned to govern in Galicia. “And they stayed on a shelf; only a few were approved,” he says. When asked why the three approved ones came out ahead and not others already written, the biologist points out that they are, “in quotes, the easy ones.” It refers to the fact that the spaces in which these species live are quite limited or that the time in which measures are applied is determined by the breeding season, as is the case of the snowy plover, whose habitat is the beaches.
Industrial projects, agricultural uses, eucalyptus cultivation
This is not the case of the Montagu’s and Pallid Harriers, which biologists warn are on the verge of extinction in Galicia, but still do not have protection measures. Vázquez Pumariño explains that they breed on the ground, in scrub areas, but today there is little surface suitable for them because they are spaces where pines and eucalyptus trees are grown or, in some cases, chosen to install wind farms. “These two species are the best example of why the Xunta did nothing in all these years: the species recovery plans could pose a difficulty for cultivation plans for fast-growing exotic species, such as pines and eucalyptus, and for executing plans of the wind developers,” he analyzes.
These species hunt in grassland areas and that would pose another foreseeable clash with ranchers and farmers. Roi Cuba, from Adega, agrees with the weight that the type and extent of the land in which threatened species live has in not having specific instruments: “We do not have protected species from rivers or riverside forests or those from agricultural habitats such as the little bustard, which is going down, or the tartar Areas such as A Limia, A Terra Chá, which are very extensive, should be protected and agricultural uses limited. And that would enter into an important social conflict.” But, remember, plans work and you have seen the brown bear or the pillar and the sapoconcho.
Both Cuba and Martiño Nercelas emphasize that there is another relevant aspect that affects the conservation of species, but it goes further and has industrial and economic implications: the already mentioned deficiencies in the Natura Network in Galicia. The European Commission has opened an infringement procedure against Spain because it considers that several communities, including Galicia, are not complying with conservation objectives.
In the Galician case, explains Nercellas, it has to do with the fact that the Xunta decided to approve the Natura Network Master Plan as a management document for all the spaces included, but the EU recommends specific tools for each one. For the biologist, this leads to “legal uncertainty, so it should not be surprising that there are judicial stoppages of projects.” “It is paradoxical that the same slowdown strategy that served in the last decade to speed up administrative authorizations for an endless list of industrial projects in mountains and rivers has now turned against us,” he reflects. What is necessary, he says, is to first approve the protection plans and then see “what the permeability of the territory is to accommodate projects.” Along these lines, Roi Cuba gives the example of Altri’s plans to build a macrocellulose plant in Palas de Rei (Lugo) on land that is candidate to enter the Natura Network and where three plant species grow that are unique in the world and are in danger of extinction. “No measures are taken. And it is not done to allow uses like this,” he says.
The experts demand that the Xunta expand the protected spaces, comply with the regulations and make use of the provided tools. The president of Adega maintains that they can also be applied to species that have recently become extinct in the community, such as the pita do monte (the capercaillie) or the guillemot, lost as a nesting species. “There is not only a lack of recovery plans, but also a lack of nourishing the catalog itself. In any case, if you have a catalog with 200 species, but you are not applying the measures required by law to protect them, it does not make much sense either. The shortcomings are multiple,” Cuba concludes.
#porpoises #tartar #spiders #threatened #species #Galicia #protection #plan #force
