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ARCHIVED - Ecologists propose creating a renaturalized strip around the Mar Menor of 15,000 hectares
Ecologists in Action believe that the solution lies in creating wetlands and areas of natural vegetation
Environmental group Ecologists in Action has presented a proposal to the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco) that a 15,000 hectare protective strip be created around the Mar Menor to promote 'renaturation' by limiting agricultural and urban activity.
The objective would be "to contribute to the resolution of the eutrophic crisis which has affected the lagoon, which has been caused mainly by the contributions of agricultural fertilizers" and which "has become palpable again this summer with the massive death of fish and crustaceans in its waters," the organisation said in a statement (see latest data published this week which illustrates the deterioration of the lagoon during the last year).
"In the analysis, the administrative situation and the uses of the land near the lagoon have been studied, trying to achieve a coherent and viable proposal," they say.
One of the main arguments of the ecologists is that in order for the process of eutrophication (which is the explosion of algae that makes the waters turn green , nitrogen and phosphorus need to enter the lagoon, and although they recognise that chemicals do flow into the waters via the rambla del Albujón, they also maintain that these also enter the water via sediment, and filtration through the soil, and into the lagoon during floods, insisting that natural wetlands are the solution to deal with this issue naturally and during the long-term.
The organisation says that the origin of the increase in nutrients in the Mar Menor "is not only found in the intensive use of fertilizers and agrochemicals in the agricultural industry, but is also influenced by the cultivation techniques used around its shores".
They explain that traditional dry landscape farming has been abandoned in favour of intensively irrigated crop farming, but by this process the natural breaks which were in place have also been removed.
Dry crop farming used a system of terraces to control the flow of water, encouraging the natural rainfall to pool on flat terraced areas, which were fringed with vegetation and low stone walls. This system of farming encourgaed the retention of water by its very structure and also limited the process of water running; the replacement of this traditional system by larger, sloping fields, encourages excess water to run-off down into the irrigation channels and therefore on into the Mar Menor, the sediment carrying nutrients into the waters, as well as encouraging erosion.
Previously, the lagoon was also surrounded by the type of natural scrubby marshland, acting as a natural sponge to soak up floodwaters, that acted as a natural brake on sediments and nutrients.
Their proposal to create a 'renaturalized' perimeter strip, will recover land and use sediment retention functions and natural denitrification (ie creating marshy strips which absorb the nutrients, which are very effective, as can be seen in the Marina del Carmolí area.
Spokesperson for Ecologists in Action of the Murcian Region, Pedro Luengo, maintains that "the proposed 'renaturalized' strip would be established in a perimeter area that represents 12 per cent of the cultivated area where the limitations on agricultural and urban activity would be the most restrictive, and in which 'renaturation' and recovery of soil and nutrient retention functions would prevail ".
The proposal also identifies some 3,000 hectares of unprotected and undeveloped land that could be included within a public acquisition program to restore wetlands.
The problems facing the Mar Menor are very complex. CLICK HERE to find out more (full background document in English).
Image: Ecologists in Action