The importance of wetlands in Alicante

Wetlands are the most important landscapes when we talk in terms of biodiversity. They consist of areas where the soil is satured with moisture permanently or seasonally. But they are fragile too and on many locations, the subject of conservation efforts.

The second most important wetland in the Valencian Community is El Hondo, in Elche, which contains lots of endangered species. The Generalitat considered it Natural Place and the European Community declared it as a Special Conservation Area for Birds.

On the other hand, the Agua Amarga wetland in Alicante, although it is protected and included in the List of Humid Places of the Valencian Community, has been deserted since 1967, after being an ancient salt-water lagoon and later transformed in a salt exploitation.

The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty which define a list with more than 1200 places for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands through local, regional, and national actions. Every three years, the member countries have a meeting for evaluate the progress and share their knowledge and experiences.

Administrations should spend more time to conserve that kind of places, we can’t afford to waste the opportunity of enjoying the unusual landscapes of the province.

AGENDA 21 IN ALICANTE

Alicante has been adopting some environmental measures since 2002 according to Agenda 21. A permanent committee was created to promote the local development and they established seven working areas such as risk and natural sources, water, waste, mobility and transport, population and environmental health, town planning, organization and citizen participation.

But what exactly is Agenda 21? It is an intergovernmental agreement on a global action plan in favour of a sustainable development programme. The number 21 refers to the 21st century. Then, in Aalborg (Denmark) the Aalborg Charter established the role of cities and towns as centres of social life and guardians of culture.

To implement the principles and draw up local action plans, the Town Hall identified the impacts that the economic and social activities are having over the city. It is important to stand out the active participation of some services companies such as Aguas Municipalizadas de Alicante, Inusa and Grupo SUBUS.

Noise Pollution in Alicante

In recent days,the number of environmental problems has increased dramatically.

Maybe not the most important but certainly one of the most stressful issues is noise pollution.

Traffic,airports or railways are expected to be the main culpable of noise pollution today but, another phenomenon like noise problems caused by young people going out at the weekends disturbing neighbouring space is rising up.

It is easy to find a solution to the first producers. Normally,that kind of noisy places are far from people´s houses or measures as fines can be effective too if the noise is higher than 55 decibels. However, finding a way to control noise caused by people is harder.

What is the limit of noise related to nights,discos and fun?.Can we fine a person who is having fun and disturbing us? Can we fine people for chatting loudly in the street? Or if we tried to close a disco near a neighbourhood, would we be taking the best option?

A clear example of that situation is what the neighbours in Alicante are living each weekend in El barrio place.

THE BLUE FLAG: A POLITICAL PRIZE?

When a beach is clean and water has good quality for bathing every year, to get a blue flag is a challenge for the local administration. Many beaches manage to get the blue flags in Spain by FEEE as European political institute.

Some people think the blue flag ia something good for local tourism. In my opinion, it is political award because there some creeks which better conditions than influential beach crowded with foreigner visitors. For example, The Postiguet Beach provides dirty sand since the beach has activity all day long. It is crowded every morning and afternoon. In the evening, some young people use it for sport activities and runners do jogging there too.

Some small creeks, for example in San Juan, have crystal clear water, there aren`t any rocks or sea wracks.

For me, the blue flag is a political award because the town halls earn much money when, in fact, the beaches haven`t the necessary conditions.

Keep Your City Clean

Alicante limpia is a campaign developed by Alicante Town Hall whose main objetive is to raise the awareneess of people about the importance of recycling and preserving nature.

This campaign includes different actions such as: “Recicla en colores” and “Urbe voluntaria”. The first action was aimed at young people and consists of informing school children about the ways of recycling paper, glass and so on. Apart from this action, there is another action addressed to adults; this action has been called “Urbe voluntaria”.

With this later movement, a group of people try to make people aware by talking to them, and informing about the benefits of recycling. This group of people, who voluntarily participate with the council, spend some days in different neighborhoods to report and detect bad practices towards nature, and try to modify and change them.

Tabarca Island Marine Reserve

Tabarca is a Spanish isleet located in the Alicante province; it is well-known for its marine reserve.

The protected Marine reserve is very important for scientists and biologist because the reserve has a varied marine fauna which are mainly congrios, gilded, starfish. It has an extraordinary ecological value in terms of marine fauna and flora.

The population is about one hundred people during the year. In summer, thousands of tourists arrive to the island and enjoy the blue water that surrounds Tabarca.

We must make people aware of the importance of taking care of the island!