Spanish wade in to save stork habitat

The black stork's habitat is under threat.

A handful of rare and timid black storks has paralysed work on an enormous "golf city" in protected woodlands near Avila, outside Madrid, marking an astonishing reverse for the march of concrete across Spain.

Developers given the green light by conservative regional authorities waded into the vast and beautiful pine forest outside Las Navas del Marques last week and hacked down thousands of trees, in defiance of a regional court ruling banning the project. The destruction ceased only by order of the local mayor, pending an appeal.

The woodlands are the habitat of five nesting pairs of black storks (ciconia nigra) and other endangered species including the imperial eagle, which regional authorities are pledged to protect. The site was originally owned by the local council which reclassified it as "urban" and auctioned it to a property developer who wants to build 1600 villas, four golf courses and two luxury hotels. The hillside beauty spot, just an hour's drive from Madrid, is guaranteed to attract prosperous escapees from the sprawling capital.

Eight environmental pressure groups, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and SEO/Birdlife, united to condemn the project and signed a legal petition against the tree felling.

The petition went to the region's environmental legal officer who imposed a banning order. Days earlier, the Castilla-Leon regional high court ruled the project violated protected areas while providing no public benefit, would destroy the storks' habitat and should be stopped on environmental grounds.

That ruling marks one of the most significant reversals so far to the encroachment of speculative building upon virgin countryside nationwide.

A stand-off has ensued between the environmental lobby and developers backed by conservative local politicians.

The developer of Golf City, Residential Aguas Nuevas, is based in the southern region of Murcia, Spain's last remaining untouched Mediterranean coastline now fast disappearing beneath a blanket of concrete. Company boss Francisco Gomez is also chairman of the region's Cartagena football club and is reportedly threatening to sell it if the local council declines to authorise his development projects.

He shows little sign of letting a mere court ruling thwart his golf project, saying he does not "rule out ordering the chainsaws back to work in a week or so, when all this has blown over".

But he may not clash just with a handful of ecologists but the national Government to as the Environment Minister, Cristina Narbona, has hailed the court ruling as "good news, interesting and important", and has warned the tree-felling will be punished.


Black stork

* Large rare wading bird that breeds in Europe's warm marshy wetlands.
* Nearly 1m tall with a 1.8m wingspan, build stick nests high in trees.
* Many migrate to Africa for winter.

- INDEPENDENT