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UN recognises the Mar Menor as World Restoration Flagship
The award acknowledges the outstand effort being made to conserve the Mar Menor lagoon
The years-long efforts being made by the Region of Murcia and wider Spanish government to rejuvenate and restore the Mar Menor have been formally recognised this week by the UN, which has awarded the lagoon’s recovery plan its Global Restoration Flagship Initiative badge.
The Global Restoration Flagship Awards are part of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, led by UNEP and FAO, which aims to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation across all continents and oceans.
The awards aim to recognise outstanding projects that contribute to global commitments to restore 1 billion hectares - an area larger than China - by 2030.
The award bestowed on the Mar Menor at the United Nations Ocean Conference acknowledges the hard work being carried out in a wide range of areas, from tackling nitrate pollution on farms to citizen collaboration and awareness projects.
Speaking at the event held in Nice, France, a UNEP spokesperson started by highlighting that the Mar Menor is "essential to the Region's identity, local tourism, artisanal fishing and unique flora and fauna, including waterfowl."
"Surrounded by one of Europe's main agricultural regions, it is the largest saltwater lagoon on the continent, and its biodiversity has successfully adapted to conditions of extreme temperatures, high salinity and low nutrient levels," he added.
However, he went on to address the ongoing concerns about the lagoon, pointing to "unsustainable agricultural activity, which releases tons of nitrates daily, as well as other polluting land-based and marine activities" as responsible for "the rapid degradation of the lagoon, including the emergence of harmful algal blooms."
According to the Bank of Spain, all this has resulted in economic losses of more than €4 billion.
What marked a turning point for the Mar Menor, symbolically as well as practically, UNEP said, was when more than half a million people staged demonstrations and protests after the ‘green soup’ episode which killed uncountable numbers of marine life. Shortly thereafter, the Mar Menor was granted its own legal personality with rights to match, a first in Europe.
Much of the progress to date is thanks to rescue plan developed by the Spanish government, dubbed the ‘Framework of Priority Actions to Recover the Mar Menor (MAPMM)’. This ambitious initiative is designed to tackle the root causes of the problem and restore the natural balance of the ecosystem.
Through 10 key lines of action and 28 targeted measures, the government aims to breathe new life into the Mar Menor by creating thriving wetlands, promoting sustainable agriculture and constructing a vast green belt to encircle the area.
The scope of the project is staggering, with a total of 8,770 hectares earmarked for restoration - a whopping 7% of the entire basin that flows into the Mar Menor. This massive effort is expected to play a significant role in helping Spain meet its climate change goals, including its national target of restoring 870,000 hectares by 2030.
One of the flagship interventions, the Green Belt, is predicted to have a profound impact, absorbing an impressive 82,256 tonnes of CO₂ by 2040 - equivalent to the annual emissions of nearly 14,000 people in Spain.
In other news: More than 900 eels released into the Mar Menor
Image: CARM
