Last Friday, the Junta de Andalucía published a decree law with a controversial article that would grant amnesty to the farmers who had unlawfully cultivated berries in forest soil next to the reserve and other crops in different areas of the region. This was a surprise and less than three months after signing an agreement with the Ministry for the Ecological Transition that will bring 350 million to the Doñana area through a social plan to revitalize the area and minimize the ecological impact on the overexploited aquifer.
Faced with the Andalusian legislative change, the Government put this plan on hold on Monday until the president of the Junta, Juan Manuel Moreno, rescinded the decree.
"The Government of Andalusia isn't interested in creating a conflict with them. We are willing to sit down with the Ministry to hear what they don't like about the decree and to modify it," stated Moreno on Tuesday. "Nothing has happened, the Ministry interpreted that it might reverse the soil situation. We disagree. However, since the general interest prevails, it'll take us less than 10 minutes to reach an agreement," the Andalusian president added.
On Tuesday, Teresa Ribera, vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, stated: "I hope this issue is solved as soon as possible. It'll probably require a specific provision because it has already been published in the Official Gazette (...) Moreno has informed me they are willing to correct the provisions that may affect that decree law, which is essential to move forward."
After a long day in which the Doñana pact was about to blow up, and after the Junta's striking changes in position, the Junta insisted on Tuesday that 'there was no subterfuge.' That is, the controversial article was not approved and published in the Official Gazette to hide it from the Ministry.
The legal change approved by the Junta sought to guarantee that, from now on, farmers sanctioned for the last 30 years for having planted irrigated or rainfed crops where there were pine, poplar, or eucalyptus forests (which are short-cycle species) will be exempted from these administrative fines. This would roll back the Andalusian forestry law in force since 1992 that prohibited producers from planting strawberries where they had previously planted trees to favor the regeneration of the Andalusian mountains.
Source: elpais.com