Alianza Marismas del Guadalquivir-Doñana
I am writing to let you know about a project involving the NGO www.salarte.org and it is a project I can’t get enough of because of its importance for nature in the Guadalquivir and Doñana, which is none other than the “Alianza Marismas del Guadalquivir-Doñana” (Guadalquivir & Doñana Marshes Alliance).
The Alliance is a reality and has an enormous relevance for the Doñana & Guadalquivir’s marshes; it covers the provinces of Seville, Huelva and Cadiz, and Salarte began to develop it two years ago with enormous success for the fauna and flora that still live in the seriously endangered mouth of the Guadalquivir.
Subject to the necessary approval from the full ABS Committee, I would like to involve the ABS in this project, we have already sent a letter of support. I believe that it may be of interest to the aims of the ABS Members, as I am convinced that it shares common objectives and will be beneficial to our scientific, environmental and social interests.
I know that the Alliance is not only limited to the province of Cadiz; but, although it covers the three provinces of Seville, Cadiz and Huelva and four well-defined regions Doñana, Metropolitan Area of Seville, Lower Guadalquivir and Northwest Coast, the province of Cadiz “contributes” a very valuable territory for the Guadalquivir-Doñana marshes system, besides being very well studied and known by the members of the ABS as Trebujena marshes, Bonanza marshes and saltpans and Chipiona coast.
I consider, with all humility, that we have in our hands a historic project (the project is aware that it is not going to try to save more than “four” spaces and critically endangered species); but we consider that, with the allies of the project, the hectares it covers and the positive impact on nature, there are not many so ambitious conservation projects like this in Spain.
The Alliance is made up of the IUCN, the Doñana Biological Station, the Ministry of the Environment, the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, four rectors of public universities, a Campus of International Excellence, the Federation of Rice Producers with the most hectares in Europe, the Fishermen’s Cooperative of Sanlúcar, the Spanish Fishing Confederation, businessmen with the ownership or management of thousands of strategic hectares in the area (Hisparrozricefields, extensive farmers), the regional administration (Junta de Andalucía), the local administration (several Town Halls), the hunting society of Hinojos (they whom manage 1.900 hectares that they are interested in restoring not just for hunting, even for nature conservation the whole year, the Cañada de Los Pájaros Nature Reserve, or the organic aquaculture farms in Sanlúcar and Trebujena, and hopefully in future the Andalucía Bird Society.
The project is not just about logos: they are holders of thousands of hectares where the species needing protection live and with human activities we want to help improve (fishing, agriculture, salt marshes, aquaculture, etc.) to conserve key habitats and ecosystem functions on which we depend to live.
The marshes that Salarte have restored, re-flooded and manages are already home to numerous groups of critically endangered species such as the Marbled Duck (Marmaronetta angustirostris), Ferruginous Duck (Aythia nyroca), Red-knobbed Coot (Fulica cristata), thousands of godwits (Limosa sp.) and other larolimic species, geese, cranes, etc. The marshes restored also host Anguilla anguilla (European Eel – Critically Endangered), fartet (Spanish Toothed Carp – Aphanius baeticus) and many other threatened species. Most importantly, they have the confidence of the people who are out in the field morning, noon, night and early morning on whom these species depend. My view is that we are in the countdown, that there is a real urgency to act, and Salarte is acting and having positive results for nature. They need help to get the whole aims proposed into the Alliance.
You, as ABS members, know Salarte well; it is a tiny NGO, but brave and committed. The people behind it (or in front, depending on how you look at it), do not receive any salary, but they spend thousands of euros on conservation every year, with objective results. That is why these brave conservationists founded Salarte in 2012, to act in the territory, to restore it and to change the reality that we have had to live, hand in hand with its local inhabitants.
They have been developing this idea for months and years without charging a single euro; they have just restored 30 new hectares of desiccated marshes in Trebujena (Coódo de la Esparraguera-Río, the largest breeding area for Marbled Duck in Spain) and they have managed to flood 30 ha. in the paleo-watershed of Los Olivillos (La Puebla del Río, Sevilla); they are also processing the concession of D. P.M-T.an abandoned public saltpan concession to restore 80 ha in the Bonanza marshes (EN Doñana) and support the daily pumping of water and the management of wetlands carried out by our allies between Seville and Sanlúcar (Esteros de Manego Nature Reserve, San Carlos aquaculture farm, Tierras Bajas Marshes, etc.). This project does not have a single public euro, they finance it all with their own funds and with private donations of foundations such as Deloitte or 1906 beer Co.
The marshes and wetlands network restored and managed by Salarte constitutes one of the most important hotspots for the survival of millions of birds in the Eastern Atlantic Flyway.
More about The Alliance
The Guadalquivir marshes are facing very serious changes caused by the overexploitation of water resources, diversion of watercourses, changes in land use, contamination by phosphogypsum and fertilisers, increased temperature and decreased rainfall. Of 185,000 ha of marshes until the middle of the 20th century, today less than 30,000 ha remain. The marshes are the nursery of hundreds of marine species on whose fishing thousands of people and jobs depend, which, without marshes, would disappear. Species in critical danger of extinction such as the Marbled Duck, or highly threatened species such as the Ferruginous Duck, the Red-crested Coot are just indicators that we must intervene immediately to change this spiral of destruction. The Alianza Marismas del Guadalquivir Doñana is an ambitious environmental restoration and land stewardship project for the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of the marshes of the Guadalquivir and its catchment areas.
This alliance has the commitment of farmers, fishermen and managers, scientific entities, employers’ associations, public administrations, institutions and non-governmental organisations to fulfil these aims, acting at three levels:
- Implementing nature-based solutions (NBS) in the management and handling of natural and transformed marshes.
- Promoting the study, conservation and dissemination of the natural and cultural heritage related to the Guadalquivir estuary, reconnecting watercourses with dried-up marshes, reinundating palaeo-catchments and restoring estuaries and salt marshes, protecting the ecosystem services they provide.
- It is essential to involve the local population in the conservation of the natural and cultural heritage of the territory and to contribute to the blue economy, enhancing biological resources, favouring natural processes and improving its resilience to the effects of climate change.
The Alliance consists of forming a network of marshes, farms, projects, actions and initiatives located in the Doñana marshes and the Guadalquivir mouth in order to re-connect the fresh and brackish water courses with marshes, rivers, streams, canals and the Atlantic Ocean; moreover, Salarte offer advice, technical assistance, funds and support on the common basis of promoting the conservation of the natural heritage and favouring sustainable development in the Guadalquivir estuary.
Some actions carried out and in progress.
Salarte has carried out numerous actions and provided advice to owners of saltpans, aquaculture farms, rice fields and marshes at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, after signing more than ten land stewardship agreements to restore and improve the habitat of the Marbled Duck, Ferruginous Duck, eels and aquatic communities and providing technical and economic assistance to its managers, owners and landowners, acting on a surface area of 11,523 ha.
For example, in 2021, Salarte designed and implemented a pilot project to restore 55 hectares of abandoned salt marshes in the Bay of Cadiz thanks to the financial support of the MAVA Foundation, investing €200,000 to recover four abandoned salt marshes whose artisanal management now earns a living for 4 families.
In 2022, Salarte implemented the project for the environmental improvement of the Esteros de Manego and Lucio Laeras Ecological Reserve for the conservation of aquatic communities, favouring the circulation of water, creating islands for the breeding of critically endangered species, preventing access by predators and promoting biodiversity, with an investment of €110,609.
In 2023, Salarte carried out works to clean, adapt and improve riverbeds to guarantee the supply of fresh water to the Reserva Natural Concertada Cañada de Los Pájaros, S.L., an action that has guaranteed the survival of thousands endangered species that breed in this nature reserve and that are released every year to recover wild populations. The project involved an investment of €30,000, provided by Martinete del Guadalquivir, S.L.
In 2024, Salarte carried out the restoration project of 2 hectares of tidal marshes on the Guadalete River, demolishing more than 10,000m2 of abandoned industrial warehouses, removal of uralite roofs and hazardous waste management, soil decontamination, elimination of invasive non-native flora and landscaping of the marshes in Bay of Cadiz.
Likewise, Martinete del Guadalquivir, S.L. has invested another €25,000 in management support actions at the San Carlos Fish Farm (Doñana Natural Park, T.M. Sanlúcar de Barrameda), and in improvements to the Codo de La Esparraguera Ecological Reserve (T.M. Trebujena, Cádiz), and Salarte has invested €10,000 in restoring 30 ha. of dried-up marshes where Marbled Ducks and Ferruginous Duck now breed, amongst others.
Salarte has re-flooded 30 hectares in the Corta de Los Olivillos, which was the original riverbed of the Guadalquivir River that silted up and dried out 50 years ago and can form a wetland with enormous potential to be a bird sanctuary but which, unfortunately, had been dry during the summer periods for four years. To ensure that it remains flooded during the summer – when the natural marsh is completely dry and the birds have nowhere to breed and moult, Salarte presented a project in November 2023 to re-flood it with pumps and water from the rice fields. In May 2024, after more than a year of negotiations, meetings and reports, the Junta de Andalucia authorised Salarte and since August it has been home to more than 3,000 water birds in this recovered ornithological sanctuary.
The Alliance aims to ensure the quality of life of those who live on the Guadalquivir mouth and shores, to guarantee that the artisan fishermen continues to offer the best Atlantic fish, that the organic aquaculture farms continues breeding high quality oysters, shrimp, sea bream and sea bass, and that Doñana National Parque continues to be the most important wetland in Europe, the larder of the European South Atlantic and a refuge for thousands of water birds.
Article/Presentation: Peter Jones – ABS President – Caring for Nature projects
Photos and illustrations: Salarte
Note: The views expressed in articles are those of the authors, and are not necessarily those of the Society.