MADRID, 25 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has warned that the Irrigation Law project of the Junta de Andalucía "could jeopardize" the recognition of the Doñana National Park as Heritage of The humanity.
UNESCO, in a statement collected by Europa Press, has recalled that, in recent years, the World Heritage Committee (governing body of the World Heritage Convention, made up of 21 of the 195 States Parties to the Convention), has warned periodically about "the overexploitation of the aquifer and its possible impacts on the site".
Thus, he pointed out that the increasing drying up of the earth's water masses "directly affects the populations of aquatic birds and is aggravated by the recent exceptional drought, which puts the exceptional biodiversity of the Doñana National Park at serious risk".
After a follow-up mission by experts from UNESCO, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the World Heritage Committee requested Spain in 2021 to continue with the urgent implementation of the 'Plan Strawberry' in its current form.
For this reason, UNESCO has warned that the legislative changes proposed at the regional level by the Junta de Andalucía to this plan are, therefore, "contrary to the Committee's requests".
The next session of the World Heritage Committee (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 10-25 September 2023) will review the state of conservation of the site and decide on the necessary measures.
These measures include, among others, a new reactive monitoring mission and, as a last resort, the possibility to inscribe the site on the List of World Heritage in Danger if the World Heritage Committee considers that the essential features of the site "are threatened by determined, specific and immediate dangers".