The 16 national parks of Spain are “singular, rare and certainly infrequent spaces“, according to its official definition, whose basic objective is “to ensure the conservation of its natural values.” However, one of those values, the forests that populate these spaces, are now worse than ever, according to the latest forest mass evaluations carried out by the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
Throughout the national parks, junipers grow and are monitored – which continue to worsen –, Aleppo pine – “in significant improvement” –, black pines or Canarian pines – “in a very unfavorable situation”–. Also, among other species, cork oaks (whose defoliation is at a maximum), holm oaks (which are recovering), oaks, oaks, strawberry trees (in a “very unfavorable” situation) and beech trees (whose health indicators are positive).
The indicators that are monitored, such as the defoliation of the tree crowns, reveal that these forests ““They continue in the most negative stage of the entire follow-up”. The worst since there were records of his health (1992), explains the Ministry’s analysis. Especially in the Mediterranean and Macaronesian regions (Canary Islands). In the Euro-Siberian “the situation is more favorable.”
The average defoliation in the national park network – the loss or absence of leaves – reached 26.8% of the trees studied in 2023. This is the highest figure in the entire 1992-2023 series and exceeds the previous peak of 26. 2%, measured in the 2016-2017 season. “The current situation is unfavorable in relation to the reference or normal value in the Network.”
In fact, only 68% of the trees fall into the healthy category. So the percentage of damaged trees in 2023 was the second highest measured in Spanish national parks. It exceeds the tolerance limit marked for this category and the reference level of the network, which shows “the extent of the current unfavorable situation as a whole,” the report concludes.
This phase of generalized poor condition began in 2016, and during these years three of the four lowest values of trees considered healthy have been certified – along with that recorded at the end of the great drought between 1991 and 1995. The average for the period is 14% lower than what is considered normal. This period also brings together the only four values of average defoliation greater than 25%.
Doñana, Teide, Taburiente
Evolutionarily, while in the 1992-2004 stage the most frequent defoliation values were 20% and 21%, with a maximum of 25% in 1995, in the most recent period (2005-2023) the most widely repeated data is the 25%, with maximums of 26% leaf loss.
Ministry documents say that in Doñana the average defoliation of its forests has reached 35%, that is, the “most unfavorable figure” since records exist. On Teide the loss “rises significantly” to 45%. Two thirds of the specimens are damaged. In the Caldera de Taburiente (La Palma), the unfavorable health indicators reach “maximum values”. The trees in the Granada Sierra Nevada also present a negative peak (a third of the monitored trees are damaged).
The main agent of damage is what they call “abiotic agents”, which basically means drought and heat. If we look at evolution, we see that these abiotic agents are increasingly responsible for the decline in forest health, the work explains. In fact, between 2016 and 2023, it has increased by 14% compared to the period 1996-2004. In other words, the increasingly dry and hot weather that is affecting Spain as a result of climate change further deteriorates the trees protected in national parks.
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