Spain and Portugal for Visitors

Posted by : John Ross on Apr 02, 2007 - 01:03 PM Murcia

The projected development of the Cabo de Cope, "one of the last remaining virgin tracts of the Spanish Mediterranean," will go ahead in spite of legal obstacles, European Union opposition, ecological common sense and old-fashioned good taste. The conservative-dominated Murcian government has not only announced that it will press on with the development, but has even informed the Spanish Tribunal Constitucional, Supreme Court, that it will not abide by any sentence against it. The farts. Read more, or visit Murcia (quickly, before the shites concrete it over altogether).
The Cabo de Cope-Puntas de Calnegre nature reserve was too juicy a plum for its own good, and plans for its plucking have been in the air for years. But it was the accession of the conservative PP to the government of Murcia in 2001 that really set the seal on the nature reserve's death sentence (you're allowed to switch metaphor between sentences, I think). So intent is the Murcia government on this project that it passed a law in the same year revoking the protected status of the Cabo de Cope-Puntas de Calnegre. This law has been challenged in the courts, and the case is now before the Tribunal Constitucional, which is expected to sentence in the near future, and against the regional government.

Let's try to be a objective about this - that bit about "one of the last remaining virgin tracts," etc. (I am quoting from Spain's leading serious daily, El País), is an exaggeration. But only a slight one. And it would be hard to find anywhere with as much unspoilt Spanish Mediterranean coastline left, about 70 kilometres of it (according to El País, actually I think it's a misprint and should read "17," which is quite enough for me to get indignant about). And forty or fifty square miles of this area are set to disappear under thousands and thousands of holiday and retirement homes, leisure complexes and, horror of horrors, a whole new resort, Marina de Cope, including, obviously, a marina.

To give yourself an idea of the enormity of this environmental outrage, go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) and run a search on "Garrobillo, Murcia, Spain" (or you can just click here, I've already done the work for you), then zoom out and pan right until you can see the little town of Cope at the bottom of the map and Calnegre at the top. What's in between? That's right - practically nothing. Oh, there are signs of human habitation around Calnegre and just south of Cope you can see a number of urbanizaciones, disagreeably lurking around as if they were just waiting for their chance to head north and expand. But in between, you see a gorgeous, wonderful emptiness, almost unblighted by the hand of man. Go on, zoom back in again, you still won't find anything, there isn't anything there to find. Oh, except (in the words of the Murcian government's own web pages), "11 tipos de hábitats inventariados prioritarios según el anexo I de la Directiva Hábitats (11 kinds of priority habitats inventoried according to Appendix I of the Habitats Directive). " These habitats are home to Testudo graeca, the Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise, Chalcides bedriagai, Bedriaga's skink, and Bufo Calamita, natterjack toad (all of them threatened species to one degree or another). Or, if tortoises, skinks and toads are perhaps a bit too slimey for you, its waters are home to the minute Aphanius iberus, the killifish or Spanish toothcarp (called fartet in Spanish, no, don't laugh, it's cruel), an extraordinary freshwater fish capable of living in water saltier than seawater, in spite of which it is also in severe danger of extinction. Or, if even that is not cuddly enough for you, the erstwhile Cabo de Cope-Puntas de Calnegre nature reserve's birdlife includes different kinds of wading birds, terns and stilts, one species of the latter being black-necked and another black-winged, and Tadorna tadorna, the admittedly common shelduck, and the area is considered an important wintering ground for flamencoes. Sixty-six humans also inhabit the area, and I wouldn't give much for their chances of survival, either, at least with their way of life intact.

What the Murcia government has done now is to inform the Tribunal Constitucional that, regardless of the decision of the latter, it (the regional government) will not restore the area to its previous level of protection. The idea would seem to be to send the message to investors and builders that the bulldozers will, indeed, go in.

And what is the reason for the haste? Greed, evidently, the irresistible stink of filthy lucre, is playing a starring role. But I smell an even nastier stench, that of politics, or more specifically, political party financing. Backs will be scratched and palms greased, and I should be very surprised if significant amounts in attache cases full of five-hundred-euro notes were not diverted towards the bottomless pits of party pockets. Via a number of selfless intermediaries with conveniently off-shore bank accounts, as likely as not.

Remember, you read it first on Spain and Portugal for Visitors. Sorry about that.