Guest post by Conor Jameson, Trusts Development Manager for the RSPB
On a spring morning 16 years ago the world woke to news that disaster had hit paradise. It was a new kind of environmental tragedy, involving a reservoir of toxic sludge, and the most important wetland in half a continent. The Coto Doñana in southern Spain has all the protected status in the book, but these couldn’t save it when a dam collapsed in the hills above it, and the residues from a metals mine poured downhill onto the plains below.
Back then I was news editor on Birds magazine, and found myself in the thick of the response. When the chance came to revisit Doñana earlier this spring, with a BBC Radio crew and my colleague Laurence Rose, veteran of many a campaign and a leading expert on Donana, I jumped at the chance. But what would we find? Has paradise been restored?
Coto Doñana is a vast area of coastal wetland, dunes, cork oak and pine forest and matorral - a kind of Mediterranean Heathland. It teems with life. It is a shining example of the type of place we and our partners have worked so hard and for so long to defend. On our recent visit we caught the tail end of a million waterfowl that winter here. We were within metres of vast flocks of flamingos, spoonbills, ibises and cranes. Imperial eagles soared overhead. We searched briefly for the Iberian lynx that lurk in the woodland fringes – one of the rarest cats in the world.
Doñana has survived many threats and even disasters, including the 1998 incident. At the time we feared the worst, as the sludge contained mining by-product heavy metals such as zinc and cadmium. A clean-up operation began, and lasted two years, as the thick layer of baked mud was removed. The river was also diverted, to prevent any more contaminated water flowing into the main part of the protected area.
The RSPB has always been heavily invested in Doñana, promoting its cause since it was first saved from damaging development in the 1950s. With our supporters on our side we have rallied to its aid in the face of multiple threats since.
Our Spanish BirdLife partner SEO was born out of the first action for Doñana. They will celebrate their 60th anniversary with a Birdfair there, this coming May.
A key work area for the RSPB this year is to ‘Defend the Directives’. These are the European conservation laws that form the bedrock of protection for our most special wildlife and sites.
In helping the BBC to report this story we can raise awareness of the role that the EU Birds and Habitats Directives have played in making governments take action for sites like Doñana.
To find out what has happened in Doñana, with contributions from our own Laurence Rose, and Carlos Dávila of SEO, listen to Costing the Earth: Flight From Disaster on BBC Radio 4 today (Wednesday 9 April) at 9pm. Or you can catch it on iPlayer.