The enormous disappointment that has entailed the withdrawal of the Andalusian Olive Grove Landscape file in its race to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site could be reversed into excitement and hope if, as many people wish, a decision that many consider to be reversed is reversed. of a “historical error” and a “shot in the foot” by the haughty olive growers themselves, those who, as Miguel Hernández wrote, raise the olive trees with no little sweat.
“The landscape of the olive grove and its social and territorial projection is a brand that we cannot afford to lose from Andalusia and from Spain,” said the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, after showing the “firm support” of the Government of Spain to resume a file that has been withdrawn when it had already been sent to UNESCO due to the rejection shown by some 8,500 olive growers in the Jaén region of Porcuna who saw their property rights damaged with that seal protecting their olive trees.
For the Minister of Agriculture, the declaration of the Olive Grove Landscape as World Heritage “would be a great achievement for the image of our sector and also for greater valorization of olive oils.” And he wonders: “Can you imagine if in a few months there is another producing country that presents a candidacy similar to this one, well we would be surprised.” Planas is confident that this is a “tactical or temporary withdrawal” of the file and that it can emerge strongly again. It must be taken into account that the declaration already had institutional consensus and was going to be evaluated by UNESCO at its 2025 assembly.
Reaction of the Universities of Jaén and Córdoba
The universities of Jaén and Córdoba, together with the Savia Foundation, have been the first institutions to react against the withdrawal of the file, which groups 13,489 hectares of 14 olive grove areas in the five olive-growing provinces in Andalusia, Jaén, Córdoba, Granada, Seville and Málaga. The commission that has promoted the file includes the five councils and universities of those provinces, and also the Junta de Andalucía, whom many accuse of taking a profile on this issue due to its timid support for the candidacy.
The Andalusian Government has indicated that it is the Jaén Provincial Council that would have to reopen the file. “We understand that there was a deficit in the processing of the candidacy, and perhaps there has been a lack of information and little transparency towards the owners of agricultural holdings,” and hence the distrust that has been generated,” said the Andalusian Government delegate in Jaén, Jesús Estrella.
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However, he believes that the candidacy could be recomposed “as long as the farmers, the owners, are counted on, and they agree.” “We must find a binomial in which economic activity is not damaged by recognitions of this type, and if this binomial is not clear, we respect the decision adopted,” said the spokesperson for the Andalusian Government, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco.
The file began to be processed a decade ago by the Jaén Provincial Council, although at the request of the Juan Ramón Guillén y Savia foundations, whose president, the veteran rural activist Francisco Casero, is clear that “there are more than 10 years of collective work thrown into the trash and all for the interests of a few.”
Casero has sent a letter to the Andalusian president, Juan Manuel Moreno, in which he urges him to lead and resume this candidacy again. “Andalusia loses the unique opportunity for its cultural and landscape heritage associated with the ancient activity of olive groves, oil and olives to be a world reference, which without a doubt, in addition to attracting tourism and prestige, provides great added value and is a “undoubted source of economic wealth.”
The alternative proposed by the Savia Foundation and other groups that support the candidacy is to exclude from the file the 8,500 farmers from the Porcuna region (Jaén) who have signed against this protection on the grounds that they are not guaranteed the right to property. “We are able to continue working, even without zone 14, where the critical farmers are,” Casero stressed.
The universities of Jaén and Córdoba have also opted to reactivate the file again. For the rector of Jaén, Nicolás Ruiz, it is “a window of lost opportunity for the province of Jaén and for all of Andalusia.” “At the UJA we will continue to support this initiative, which has probably required a greater and better explanation to those affected,” added Ruiz.
Vice-rector Alberto del Real, who has been part of the institutional commission where the file was processed, has gone further by indicating that the withdrawal of the candidacy would be “a historical error.” Del Real has regretted that the farmers who have rejected the file “have been the subject of a campaign of misinformation, hoaxes and ‘fake news’ that has led them to shoot themselves in the foot.” For his part, the rector of the University of Córdoba (UCO), Manuel Torralbo, has also regretted the withdrawal of the file and recalled that this declaration was very important, since the olive grove “is a heritage and the more we value it , better”.
Jaime Lillo, who is the first Spaniard to be appointed executive director of the International Olive Council (IOC), has indicated that if there are different voices on the file “it is a good decision to stop, listen, dialogue and reflect, because they are journeys in which You have to be convinced.”
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