In Pictures
Spain’s land buyout plan in shrinking Ebro Delta irks locals
Such purchases would expand a publicly owned buffer along the coast where nature would take its course.
When a storm hits their village in northeastern Spain, Marcela and Maria Cinta Otamendi rush to the coast, day or night, to check on their restaurant and rice fields, fearing the sea may have swallowed them.
That fear has deepened in recent years as the Mediterranean has encroached upon the land their father bought in 1951 in the Ebro River Delta, a 320-square-km (124-square-mile) UNESCO Biosphere Reserve rich in wetland wildlife such as flamingos.
“We don’t know if we will make it through this winter,” said Marcela, 56, who wants the government to preserve the land and opposes a plan to buy it out instead, vowing to fight it in court.
“It’s our business but also our heritage,” added her sister Maria Cinta, 58, who manages the Vascos restaurant.
With rising seas threatening to engulf low-lying shores, the government aims to buy 832 hectares (2,055 acres) of private land in the Ebro Delta in what would be Europe’s largest climate-related land buyout to date and would include Otamendi’s roughly 40 hectares.
According to a preliminary protection plan expected to be finalised before December, such purchases would expand a publicly owned buffer – by up to 560 metres inland – along the coast where nature would take its course.
The environment ministry told Reuters news agency it had received 252 public comments about its plan and would take as many as possible into account. It could be approved by decree, avoiding parliamentary debate.
Madrid has not disclosed its price tag.
The plan has prompted strong opposition from officials and farmers in the Ebro Delta – where 62,000 people live and lucrative rice fields account for 65 percent of the area – illustrating how governments are starting to face tough choices as they try to adapt to increasing environmental risks.
