Kategorie: News
Ecosystem of the Spanish saltwater lagoon Mar Menor gets special protection
The Mar Menor saltwater lagoon on Spain's Mediterranean coast in the Murcia region has been polluted by business and tourism for years. Environmentalists are now celebrating a success: In a landmark ruling, the Mar Menor has been recognised as a legal entity with rights that require the ecosystem be protected by local authorities.
The Senate in Madrid passed this major step with a large majority. The Chamber of Deputies had already approved the project in April.
Protection as an ecosystem
With the conclusion of the legislative process and the publication in the official gazette, citizens - even if they are not affected themselves - can appeal to the judiciary for a suspected violation of rights of the largest saltwater lagoon in Europe. The issue is the protection of the lagoon as an ecosystem. A committee of six representatives from the authorities and seven from society is to oversee the protection, conservation and recovery of the lagoon.
The decision is based on a citizen's right to trigger a legislative procedure, which is anchored in the Spanish constitution. At least 500,000 signatures must be collected for this. More than 640,000 people had signed for the initiative.
Now every citizen, even if they are not affected themselves, may sue if they see the rights of the Mar Menor violated. Anyone who harms the lagoon can be taken to court and fined.
Multiple reasons lead to heavy pollution
The shallow Mar Menor (Spanish for "Smaller Sea") has been endangered for decades, mainly by intensive agriculture, but also mining operations and excessive tourism. In addition, there is the discharge of large amounts of freshwater due to the gigantic agricultural operations in the low-rainfall region - the water is brought from central Spain to the south via large canal systems. The combination of over-fertilisation and the freshwater discharge promotes algae growth. Severe oxygen deficiency is then further promoted by the extremely hot summers, resulting in mass mortality of fish and other aquatic life.
Seahorses were abundant in the Mar Menor not so long ago. The crystal-clear water, the special salinity, slightly higher than that of the Mediterranean, from which the lagoon is separated only by a narrow headland: the living conditions were ideal for these enchanting sea creatures. Soon, however, the seahorses in the Mar Menor could be completely extinct. Almost the entire population of the long-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus guttulatus) has been lost from the lagoon in the past ten years, warns the Asociación Hippocampus association. An estimate in 2012 put the number of specimens at 200,000; in December 2020, 1350 animals were still counted. Then came the summer of 2021 and the population was almost completely wiped out.
Well over 15 tonnes of fish, crustaceans and algae died in the saltwater lagoon in the hot disaster year of 2021. Hundreds of thousands of seahorses, small fish, mussels and crabs suffocated in the lagoon's water and washed up on the shore. According to marine biologists, humans are to blame: political failure in combination with excessive agricultural production in the Murcia region have led to the complete collapse of the former natural paradise.
"Revolution of the economic system"
In August 2021, the lagoon's waters completely overturned when tons of dead animals were pulled out of the water after days of air temperatures of 40 degrees. Granting the environment its own enforceable rights is a "revolution that will put limits on the current economic system that is destroying the planet", said University of Murcia philosophy professor Teresa Vicente in April.
During the 2022 summer, which was also very hot in Spain and much of Europe, the water temperature in the Mar Menor had once again risen extremely in August: more than 31 degrees were measured. Environmentalists and fishermen removed more than 14,000 tonnes of biomass from the lagoon this year.
The new law gives the polluted lagoon the right to "exist as an ecosystem and develop naturally". A committee consisting of representatives of the authorities and society is to watch over the protection, preservation and renaturation of the Mar Menor from now on.
With the new law, the future of the lagoon is now also to be secured on a legal level. This is a unique process in Europe. Ecuador is currently the only country in the world that has made nature a legal subject in its constitution. In 2017, the Whanganui River in New Zealand was granted the same rights as a living human being for the first time. Initiatives that may represent an opportunity for our environment?