Natura 2000 Spania : Boom-ul imobiliar determina rapoarte negative de la UE

EU Parliament: Spain Guilty of Property Abuses

The European Parliament today approved a report slamming Spain for all manner of evils relating to the Spanish property sector, including the ‘land grab’ and Ley de Costas scandals that have created so much misery for home owners in Spain.

The report, by Danish MEP (Greens) Margrete Auken, paints a depressing picture of developers and corrupt politicians trampling over private property rights and the environment in pursuit of their own enrichment, whilst the authorities look the other way. This is the 3rd EU report slamming Spain for foul practices in its property sector in almost as many years.
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“Whereas the natural Mediterranean island and coastal areas of Spain have suffered extensive destruction in the last decade as cement and concrete have saturated these regions in a way which has affected not only the fragile coastal environment – much of which is nominally protected under the Habitats /Natura 2000 and Birds Directives, such as urbanisations in Cabo de Gata (Almería) and in Murcia – but also the social and cultural activity of many areas, which constitutes a tragic and irretrievable loss to their cultural identity and heritage as well as to their environmental integrity, and all this primarily because of the absence of supra-municipal planning or regional planning guidelines placing reasonable limits on urban growth and development, set on the basis of explicit criteria of environmental sustainability, and because of the greed and speculative behaviour of certain local and regional authorities and members of the construction industry who have succeeded in deriving massive benefits from their activities in this regard, most of which have been exported."

Sursa.

Half of all areas within Spain’s Natura 2000 network do not have full protection

Spanish and Portuguese scientists have reviewed the regulations relating to protection of the ecologically-important natural areas within the Natura 2000 network. According to the researchers, the risk evaluation protocols used do not take into account specific ecological aspects, such as the presence of protected birds in areas polluted by chemical products as a result of human activity. For this reason, they are pushing for the development of a complementary methodology that has a more suitable approach.

“Scientifically-based scenarios and protocols have been developed, and are being applied in practice. However, these are generic scenarios that do not take into consideration the specific ecological features of areas that suffer from human impact in the form of pollution,” José Vicente Tarazona, lead author of the research project and coordinator of the Ecotoxicology and Environmental Risk Assessment Department of the National Institute for Agrarian Technology and Agrofood (INIA), tells SINC.

The study, which has been published recently in Science of the Total Environment, shows that the particular ecological value of a protected area “should be considered in risk assessments of activities being carried out there”.

Sursa.

Arestari in Spania-Natura 2000: Ex Murcia Regional Councillor arrested for corruption

Francisco Marqués faces perversion of the course of justice and bribery charges in connection with a development in the sierra

An ex Murcia regional councilor, Francisco Marqués, has been arrested by National Police in Madrid as part of the Zerrichera case. It relates to the building of an urbanization in an environmentally protected zone in the La Almenara Sierra in Murcia.

Sources in the Murcia High Court say he faces charges of perversion of the course of justice and bribery, and he is expected to appear before the Instruction Court Three shortly. Several homes were searched as part of the police operation yesterday.

The project at Águilas was to construct 4,000 homes, a luxury hotel and an 18 hole golf course on a 250 hectare finca, part of which was classified in the Red Natura 2000 European environment protection classification.

The Partido Popular councilor held several posts in the regional governments led by Valcárcel, and resigned in April 2006 after several months of criticism from ecologists when he was councilor for the Environment and territorial planning, a post he had held from 2004.

Sursa.