The “excessive” deterioration of Doñana: lower than 90,000 birds in its marshes, the worst determine in 40 years

The lack of rainfall and the overexploitation of the water plenty are severely endangering the waterfowl within the Doñana National Park, which is struggling, within the phrases of search engine optimisation/BirdLife, “excessive deterioration”. A state of affairs acknowledged, in accordance with quite a few technical and scientific reviews, by all nationwide environmental administrations, the IUCN, the Ramsar Convention and UNESCO.

The pure space was included in UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites List for representing an distinctive instance of a significant wetland for migratory birds between Europe and Africa. However, if we don’t act with monumental urgency, Doñana, as we all know it, will disappear.

The information is devastating. According to the data obtained from the aerial censuses by the Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC), wintering 2021/2022 has been the worst in 40 years with solely 87,488 specimens registered, removed from the 470,000 of the earlier yr. Or what’s the similar, not even 20 % of the specimens registered a yr in the past.

According to Carlos Davila, head of the search engine optimisation/BirdLife Technical Office in Doñana, “though inhabitants fluctuations of waterfowl are frequent and are related, amongst different components, with the state of flooding within the pure marsh, inhabitants tendencies replicate the results of the local weather change and the overexploitation of groundwater and floor water, being indicator of the state of the ecosystems”.

The censuses on breeding birds supplied by the Doñana Natural Area Management Team itself throughout the Participation Council held on December 14, present a desolate panorama as a result of poor ecological situation of the nationwide park marsh.

Endangered species, in decline

Regarding the endangered species, for which Doñana has traditionally been one among its final refuges, all of them present an enormously worrying destructive pattern: the marbled teal continues to say no, with solely 10 registered pairs, all of them outdoors the nationwide park. The white-headed duck has not reproduced for the second consecutive yr, in a destructive sequence unknown till immediately. The Moorish coot, for its half, has not reproduced in Doñana since 2018, which represents the worst information for this species in 19 years.

Breeding populations of frequent waterfowl have additionally plummeted, persevering with with a marked regressive pattern since 2019. For instance, throughout 2021, 2,012 pairs of Common Ibirs have been counted, whereas in 2022, solely 614 pairs have been counted, assuming the third worst yr for the species since 2004. It can also be the third worst yr within the historic sequence for the frequent spoonbill, with 94 pairs, and for the purple heron, with 23 pairs.

For Carlos Davila, “Doñana is taken into account probably the most necessary wetlands for Western Palearctic waterfowl populations, however the poor ecological situations of the nationwide park marsh are being mirrored within the destructive pattern of many of the reproductive species, a few of that are disappearing from the protected space.”

Poor water administration and lack of rainfall

According to the documentation offered on the Doñana Participation Council held yesterday, December 14, the gathered precipitation throughout the 2021/2022 hydrological yr has been 304 mm, which represents solely 58% of the historic common. Therefore, the Doñana National Park is immersed, after eleven years, within the largest dry cycle in its historical past.

The future, predictably, is not going to be higher. According to the reviews of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warmth waves and droughts will proceed to extend in depth and frequency within the Mediterranean basin. However, it’s poor water administration within the Doñana setting, the best risk it faces. The overexploitation of water sources retains the ecosystems of Doñana getting ready to collapse.

“Although the rains which have fallen to this point this month of December characterize an gathered quantity of about 180 mm because the starting of the hydrological yr in October, they’re about 70 mm beneath the typical. And though the Rocío marsh is already flooded (it’s the first to flood), it doesn’t give a real picture of the present state of affairs in Doñana, which has barely begun to get soaked, and it’s nonetheless early to substantiate that we’re inaugurating a moist interval within the Guadalquivir basin”, explains Davila.

On the opposite hand, from search engine optimisation/BirdLife they remorse that the Special Plan for the administration of irrigated areas situated to the north of the Doñana forest crown, accepted in 2014 and which must be a key device for the Junta de Andalucía to deal with the administration of the irrigation of the Doñana, continues with out being executed eight years after its approval. Meanwhile, in accordance with the reviews of the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, the overexploitation of groundwater impacts 62 % of the sectors of the Doñana aquifer, that are in a worse state of affairs than would correspond in accordance with the rainfall recorded in recent times. years.

According to Ana Carricondo, coordinator of search engine optimisation/BirdLife Conservation Programs, “sectoral insurance policies should assume and combine nature conservation insurance policies and laws, guaranteeing the socioeconomic viability of native populations by means of extra sustainable manufacturing fashions, based mostly on the pure values ​​of their space, tailored and resilient to the results of world warming within the Mediterranean basin. In truth, when a wetland is misplaced, not solely the habitat for birds is misplaced, but in addition the environmental providers that ecosystems supply us and on which we rely to keep up our high quality of life.”

In this sense, search engine optimisation/BirdLife welcomes the presentation of the Framework of Actions for Doñana, by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, understanding that the general public Administrations with powers should revert the state of affairs in a coordinated method, making use of a few of the measures that the environmental NGO has been demanding for years, to make sure that Doñana has a future.