The Ministry of Ecological Transition has published this Saturday the long-awaited order that regulates the bases for granting aid to farmers who own legal and illegal irrigation systems in the area of Doñana, endowed with 28 million euros.
Sara Aagesen’s department has established “single criteria” To qualify for this aid, that is, the Government asks the same requirements for farmers who have been using water from the National Park for years as it does for the owners of farms with irrigation permits.
Both will be able to benefit from these million-dollar aid -70,000 euros per hectare- whose objective is to “renaturalize agricultural surfaces” close to the reserve, that is, to exchange irrigated land – with or without a license – for land with other uses, whether dry crops. or for reconversion into forest areas.
The first call for aid, which now opens a period of allegations, can benefit 400 hectares of crops in the Doñana area, central government sources confirm. It is the agricultural area for which the first 28 million euros have been released, but the Ministry plans to issue two more calls until 2027, and has left the door open to call for more “if necessary.”
The final amount will depend on how many farmers request it. There may be owners of irrigated farms with all the papers in order who want to retire or who do not have anyone to replace them in the exploitation of their lands, and choose to take advantage of the renaturalization procedure, they explain from the department of Aagesen.
When interested farmers apply for this aid and submit their application, it will be known which of those 400 hectares of irrigated crops are illegal and how many are legal. “The criteria of the bases are unique,” the vice president confirmed to questions from this newspaper, during her appearance, this Saturday, together with president Juan Manuel Moreno at the San Telmo Palace, headquarters of the Board.
The fact that the Ministry has established the same criteria for both was one of the great unknowns of the regulatory bases of the aid. Until now, the idea had been spread that illegal farmers – who had been pirating the National Park aquifer for years – could aspire to aid even if they were sanctioned, as long as they were in the process of paying the fines.
The farmers demanded that the Government and the Board advance them more amounts and that the collection periods be shorter, specifically, they asked for guarantees that whoever had a penalty still unpaid could receive the aid money and reduce it from ten to five the years to collect the entire subsidy. They also demand that the two governments have an exclusive negotiating table with them, apart from mayors or other groups with interests in the area.
1,600 hectares; 748 with “right of surface waters”
The total number of hectares of agricultural land in the Northern Crown of Doñana that can be “renaturalized” is not quantified, although this area will determine the total budget of aid for farmers in the area. The final figure must be close to the total hectares that were going to be reclassified as irrigable crop land with the approval of the controversial irrigation law that PP and Vox brought to Parliament, and that the pact for Doñana signed a year ago between the Government and the Junta de Andalucía stopped dead.
That figure ranges between 1,400 and 1,600 hectares, according to the numbers handled by the Board, the PP and Vox during the processing of the aforementioned bill. The most precise number was given by the former Andalusian Deputy Minister of the Environment, Sergio Arjona, in his speech before the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament, on April 21, 2022.
Arjona defended there the bill that was being processed to amnesty illegal irrigation in the area of Doñana, and detailed, for the first time, that “of the 1,600 hectares that were left outside the management plan for the Northern Crown of Doñana [el llamado Plan de la Fresa]the right to surface water would be recognized for 748 hectares.”
If the plan for Doñana finally reaches that area, the aid to farmers that the Ministry of Ecological Transition has planned for the next two calls will double the 28 million of the first batch.
Aagasen visited the National Park for the first time on Friday and met in the afternoon with the 14 mayors of Huelva municipalities affected by the Doñana plan. This Saturday he appeared in San Telmo with Moreno to make visible the good understanding, the “institutional loyalty” and the dialogue between two governments of different political signs -PSOE and PP- that have found in Doñana a kind of demilitarized or non-aggression zone .
The Andalusian president has praised “the work” of the Ministry of Ecological Transition in the design of aid to farmers, “of a high level of technical audacity,” he said. “It was not easy, considering European regulations. The bases of the aid were fundamental to provide light where there was shadow, to plant crops with less need for water,” Moreno stressed.
The Board will now have to issue its own call for aid to farmers, which “complements” those of the Ministry, with an amount of up to 30,000 euros per hectare. The president anticipates that this aid line could be ready before the summer of 2025.
The agreement between the Government and the Junta put an end, a year ago, to a very tough war waged by both administrations over the controversial law to amnesty illegal irrigation in the Northern Crown of Doñana. The European Commission, UNESCO and the scientific community openly aligned themselves against it, Brussels threatened Spain with million-dollar fines, and the former Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, personally struggled to seek an agreement that included the withdrawal of the controversial law. , when it was already in the final phase of the parliamentary process.
Moreno withdrew the project in exchange for a socioeconomic investment plan for the area, endowed with 1,400 million euros, 706 million committed by the central government and 728 million by the Junta (although the Andalusian part was nourished by budget items that had already been existed and were being implemented).
The Government of Pedro Sánchez involved 12 ministries in the Doñana plan. Ecological Transition also allocates 11.5 million to “innovative projects in the agricultural sector, livestock or the forestry sector”, work to “improve practices and achieve much more sustainable development of the territory.” To achieve this, we will work with universities and research centers that will operate from the territory.
Aagasen also spoke this Saturday about another line of aid, framed in the Ministry of Housing, to improve the living and habitability conditions of temporary immigrant workers who work in Huelva. “We seek to promote decent working conditions,” he said.
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