A group of leading supermarkets, including Asda, Sainsbury’s, and Waitrose, has written to the regional government of Andalucía, warning that plans to allow more strawberry farms near one of Europe’s largest protected wetlands could risk “the reputation and the long-term development of the region”.
Last month, rightwing MPs in the southern Spanish region ignored protests from the central government, the EU, Unesco and several ecological groups by voting to “regularise” 1,461 hectares (3610 acres) of land near the Doñana national park.
The move – described by WWF Spain as a “mortal blow to the already over-exploited aquifer that gives Doñana life” – means farmers who have sunk illegal wells and built illicit plantations on the land will be able to legitimise their operations.
Juan Manuel Moreno, the regional president and a member of the conservative People’s party, has argued the legislation will allow authorities to more closely monitor the water tapping that has been going on for years.
But environmentalists disagree – as do some of the huge agri-food companies that buy their strawberries and other red berries from the Huelva and Doñana regions near the protected wetlands.
In their letter to Moreno, the companies warn that any attempt to modify a 2014 plan that placed a moratorium on new farms in the area could prove hugely damaging.
“The existing special plan is an important tool to ensure more sustainable cultivation at the origin of the supply chain,” they say. “We are concerned that the proposed changes undermine this goal and endanger the Doñana national park.”
The letter – which was co-ordinated by WWF Spain and also signed by Tesco, Lidl, Aldi, Morrisons, Spar and the Innocent drinks company – calls on the regional government to “refrain from the proposed modification”.
“Appropriate measures should be taken to ensure the sustainability of water and soil management in Doñana in the long term,” write the signatories.
“Should this not succeed, we believe that the reputation and the long-term development of the region as a supply area are at risk.”
The letter follows a similar call from Spain’s environment minister, who said the move risked damaging Spain’s international reputation, undermining efforts to tackle the climate emergency, and could result in the EU taking costly legal action.
“Given the enormous harm, both economic and environmental – not to mention the damage to Spain’s image abroad – I … call on you to abandon this process before the Andalucían parliament, which could prove so damaging for Spain,” Teresa Ribera said in another letter to Moreno in February.
“No one should think that we’re going to erode our natural jewels by as much as a millimetre,” Moreno said in January. “We’re going to protect it because that’s what the law tells us to do, and because that’s what we want to do.”
Water supplies to Doñana, where marshes, forests and dunes extend across almost 130,000 (321,000 acres) hectares in the provinces of Huelva, Seville and Cádiz, have declined drastically over the past 30 years because of climate change, farming, mining pollution and marsh drainage. Doñana is visited by millions of migrating birds each year and is also home to a major population of endangered Iberian lynxes.
Berries play a huge role in the local economy. Between January and June last year, Huelva’s exports of soft fruit – almost 20% of which are to the UK – were worth €801.3m (£678m).
