{"id":401985,"date":"2023-11-30T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=401985"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Spain-creates-1-4B-euro-deal-to-help-protect-Do-ana-wetland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Spain-creates-1-4B-euro-deal-to-help-protect-Do-ana-wetland\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain creates 1.4B-euro deal to help protect Do\u00f1ana wetland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>MADRID<\/strong> (AP)\u2014National and regional authorities in Spain signed an agreement Monday to invest 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in areas around the treasured national park of Do\u00f1ana in a bid to stop the park from drying up.<\/p>\n<p>Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera said the plan was aimed at encouraging farmers to stop cultivating crops that rely heavily on water from underground aquifers that have been overexploited in recent years, damaging one of Europe\u2019s largest wetlands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an agreement with which we put an end to pressure on a natural treasure the likes of which there are few in the world,\u201d Ribera said.<\/p>\n<p>Andalusia regional President Juan Moreno said farmers will receive financial incentives to stop cultivating and to reforest land in and around some 14 towns close to Do\u00f1ana. He said farmers who wish to continue cultivating will receive less money but must switch to farming dry crops ecologically.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the agreement, Andalusia will cancel previously announced plans to expand irrigation near Do\u00f1ana, a decision that UNESCO, the central government and ecologists criticized for putting more pressure on the aquifer.<\/p>\n<p>A UNESCO World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve, Do\u00f1ana is a wintering site for half a million waterfowl and a stopover spot for millions more birds that migrate from Africa to northern Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Ecologists working in and near the park have long warned that its ecosystem of marshes and lagoons is under severe strain because of agriculture and tourism. The situation has been made worse by climate change and a long drought, along with record high temperatures.<\/p>\n<p>Andalusia recently announced a plan to allow the Do\u00f1ana park to annex some 7,500 hectares (18,500 acres) by purchasing land from a private owner for 70 million euros.<\/p>\n<p>Do\u00f1ana currently covers 74,000 hectares (182,000 acres) on an estuary where the Guadalquivir River meets the Atlantic Ocean on Spain\u2019s southern coast.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/1e696813d3865b4a7630c4f039a28284.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>Cracks in the mud are visible in a dry wetland in Do\u00f1ana natural park, southwest Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022.<\/p>\n<p>-AP<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MADRID (AP)\u2014National and regional authorities in Spain signed an agreement Monday to invest 1.4 billion&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-401985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}