Strawberry fields forever? Maybe not in water-starved south-eastern Spain.
Germany’s Bundestag sent a cross-party delegation to Spain this week to investigate a controversial proposed irrigation law in the southern region of Andalusia. The law has already caused friction between Spain’s central government, majority controlled by the nominally left-wing Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), and Andalusia’s Junta, controlled by a coalition of the conservative Popular Party and far-right VOX. The Junta’s proposed law will regularise nearly 1,900 hectares of berry farmland currently irrigated by illegal wells, some of them in the endangered Doñana national park, one of Europe’s largest wildlife sanctuaries and a UNESCO world heritage site.
“For Doñana it would be a disaster,” said Juanjo Carmona of the local branch of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF).
A photo of the (now much depleted) wetlands of Doñana National Park taken by Gabriela Coronado Hernández in 2017.
The park’s diverse ecosystem of marshes, lagoons, pine forests and dunes stretches across 122,000 hectares — almost the size of London. It lies on the migratory route of millions of birds and is home to many rare species such as the Iberian lynx. But its iconic wetlands are rapidly drying up.
A Fruity Powerhouse
Doñana is nestled on the southern flank of Huelva province, which is the powerhouse of Europe’s berry industry. After switching from crops such as corn and nuts to red fruits in the 1970s and ’80s, it now produces over 90% of Spain’s strawberries, roughly 30% of the EU’s and is a major source of other red fruits. But growing these fruits on such a scale requires huge reserves of sunlight (not a problem) and water (a much more serious problem).
Spain is suffering one of its worst droughts of recent years. In March and April, the country received just 36% and 22% of average rainfall respectfully, and Andalusia, like all of Spain’s Mediterranean coastal regions, has been particularly hard hit. The reservoirs of the Guadalquivir basin, Andalusia’s longest river, are at just 23% of capacity; those of the Guadiana, are at 31.93%, and the Segura, 35%.
It is against this backdrop of acute drought and water scarcity that Andalusia’s regional government has proposed a new irrigation law to expand the irrigable land in the region. The law has sparked alarm in Brussels, which has threatened Spain with financial penalties over the proposed plan. UNESCO is also concerned, having repeatedly warned of the potentially dire consequences of over-exploitation of the region’s aquifer. In a statement last week, the UN body said the proposed measures “could threaten the very reasons for the recognition of Doñana National Park as a UNESCO World Heritage site.”
This past week, representatives of the Environment Commission of the German Parliament have been in Madrid to meet with government officials, business groups and environmental organisations. They were supposed to visit Huelva and other parts of Andalusia but pulled out at the last minute, claiming they did not want to interfere in Spain’s upcoming general election. But perhaps the decision also had something to do with to the hostile reception that probably awaited them.
The ostensible purpose of the visit was to address issues related to “water scarcity and consumer protection,” according to the press release from the lower house of the German Parliament. The statement notes that the drought in Spain could affect German consumers, given that “nearly 27% of fresh fruit and vegetables [consumed in Germany] comes from Spain”.
Boycott versus Counter-Boycott
The visit follows a petition by German environmental association Compact calling on German supermarkets to stop selling imported berries grown near the endangered wildlife sanctuary. The campaign warns that by growing cheap strawberries for Germany and other northern European countries, Spain risks destroying one of its most important natural habitats. And that trend could get worse after right-wing parties swept the board in the recent local and regional elections…
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Nick Corbishley 