The DANA in Valencia seriously damaged the Albufera wetland and it is urgent that it be restored

World Wetlands Day was celebrated on 2 February in commemoration of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971. Since then, more than 2,400 protected areas covering more than 2.5 million square kilometres in 172 countries have been added to the list of wetlands of international importance. 

Wetlands are the most threatened ecosystem on Earth, disappearing three times faster than forests. This year the slogan ‘Protecting wetlands for our common future’ has emphasised the need to preserve these spaces for subsistence, as they contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, human well-being and the availability of fresh water, among other functions. In addition, a great diversity of aquatic flora and fauna is born there, generating a pyramid of biodiversity of enormous value. Despite their importance, more than 80% of wetlands have disappeared in the last three centuries, 35% since 1970 to the present day. 

In 1982 Spain signed up to the Ramsar Convention, being the third country in terms of the number of wetlands included (76); it is also a founding member of the Mediterranean Wetlands Initiative (MedWet). The numerous forms of protection granted to wetlands have not prevented them from continuing to deteriorate at an alarming rate. Numerous complaints in this regard have led to the opening of cases, the handing down of convictions and the blacklisting of such emblematic wetlands as Doñana and Tablas de Daimiel in the Ramsar Convention's Montreux Record, the first to be included in the national protection list. 

Many of the original wetlands have disappeared, partly because in the past the State itself encouraged their drainage due to the historical view of these places as being unhealthy. 

35 years after the law made it compulsory to draw up a national inventory of wetlands as a first step towards their protection, the apathy of many autonomous communities and of the central government itself has meant that at most two out of ten wetlands appear in the national catalogue, so that which is not known can hardly be protected. 

Almost half of the wetlands are seriously altered. The main threats are changes in land use and overexploitation of the water on which the wetlands depend for agriculture, especially intensive agriculture, fraudulent occupation for cultivation of land that belongs to wetlands for which aid from the CAP is even being received, poorly planned electrical infrastructures, mass tourism, pollution and invasive species. 

Doñana, Tablas de Daimiel and Mar Menor are clear examples of how intensive agriculture puts pressure on these ecosystems by competing for water and polluting aquifers. 

Among the species affected by this process of destruction, birds are the most affected, since more than half of the species in danger of extinction are linked to wetlands. 63% of the birds that use our wetlands for breeding are in a poor state of conservation. 

This year, Ecologistas en Acción is paying special attention to the Albufera of Valencia, an important wetland that was seriously damaged by the effects of the DANA that occurred at the end of October 2024. The disaster had a profound effect on the hydraulic and floodable areas that feed this wetland, and on its biodiversity, and the scale of the disaster has yet to be assessed. The obvious consequences of climate change are compounded by disastrous urban, agricultural, water and infrastructure management, creating a very dangerous cocktail that has resulted in the Albufera de València Natural Park receiving thousands of tonnes of all kinds of waste (including industrial waste of varying levels of danger and toxicity), sewage, sludge, inert waste, etc. This has aggravated the state of this natural space, already vulnerable due to the contamination of its waters by organic and chemical waste, salinisation, water scarcity and eutrophication. 

Action is urgently needed to restore this natural area of more than 20,000 hectares with a regeneration plan in line with environmental and social needs. An adequate ecological flow must be allocated for the good ecological health of the ecosystem, preventing the concentration of pollution, which would allow the growth of aquatic plants and the recovery of the food chain.