Coto Doñana, Spain

Lying in the delta of the Guadalquivir river, between the southern Spanish city of Seville and the Atlantic Ocean, the Coto Doñana National Park is one of the world’s most valuable wetlands. The park’s marshlands, natural beaches, dune systems, woodlands and heaths provide a haven for six million migratory birds as well as endangered species such as the Imperial eagle. Doñana is also home to one of the last surviving populations of the world’s most endangered cat species, the Iberian lynx.

WWF has close links with the area – in the 1960s it purchased a significant part of the area and was instrumental in encouraging the Spanish government to turn the area into a National Park, a goal it achieved in 1969. Since then Doñana’s status as an area of great ecological importance has been further reinforced by a number of European and international laws and conventions which specifically call for its protection.

Yet Coto Doñana is still under threat. In a country beset by droughts on a regular basis, the main problem in Doñana is the misuse of water.

Agricultural Impacts
In recent years, strawberry farms have sprung up in areas around the park, growing the fruit out of season in response to the demand from northern European consumers for a year-round supply of strawberries. Strawberries are a thirsty crop, and farmers have to extract massive quantities of groundwater, often illegally, to irrigate their plants. This is having a severe impact on the park. Many of the rivers and streams running into Coto Doñana, including one of the most important ones, La Rocina, have experienced reduced flows of up to 50%, leading to a drying out of the wetlands.

The explosion in the number of strawberry farms has also lead to a loss of natural habitat, as many are set up on public land, with the farmers simply clearing the forest illegally to make room for their plants. This is a particular problem when the fields are grown in migration corridors - corridors of natural habitat which provide a vital link for the wildlife of Doñana, including the lynx, to other natural areas.

The other main crop related to water in Doñana is rice, which is grown to the east of the National Park. The area was once open marshland, and numerous streams transferred water from the Guadalquivir River to the national park area. Now the streams are gone and the area has effectively been transformed into a vast rice paddy of more than 35.000 hectares of monoculture. The rice farmers recently switched to Integrated Production, thereby reducing many of the environmental impacts of the crop, such as diffuse pollution of chemicals. However, the rice continues to use a lot of water.