San Glorio

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San Glorio is a mountain pass in the Cantabrian Mountains of Northern Spain. Situated some 800m from the southern border of the Picos de Europa National Park, a park included in UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves and shared by the provinces of León, Asturias and Cantabria, the pass is located at an altitude of 1609 metres along the national highway N621 which connects the city of León with Cantabria and which passes through Asturias.

The valleys of this part of the Cantabrian Mountains, included in the European Union's Natura 2000 network and Special Protection Areas for the Conservation of Wild Birds, are used as a corridor by the two remaining populations of Cantabrian brown bear Ursus arctos, catalogued in Spain as being in danger of extinction, ^[1] to travel from León to areas in Palencia and Cantabria. Moreover, the slopes of the glacial valleys making up the surrounding region are home to an important variety of plant life.

1 Environmental issues
2 Initiatives
3 Court rulings
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Environmental issues

San Glorio is also the name of a possible ski resort in the area. Involving some 60 kilometres of pistes, the plan was first suggested in the 1970's. The project has so far not gone ahead due to the high environmental value of the area, which together with the presence of the Brown Bear, also remains refuge to the Capercaillie T. urogallus cantabricus as well as the value of the existing plant life, has stirred the scientific community to present a declaration warning of the irreparable damage that would result to the habitat from the construction of large facilities in an area of such environmental value. Much of the land in question belongs to the Natural Park of Fuentes Carrionas y Fuente Cobre-Montaña Palentina.

While the latest estimate puts the Cantabrian Brown Bear population at around 140, these bears are divided between around 100-110 in the Western section and 25-30 in the Eastern. Leading Spanish experts have warned that despite the evident rise, the bear population will not be viable until there are "several hundred". Asturias only has a 25% forest coverage, the lowest for any existing bear region in Europe (other bear areas have more than 50% forest coverage) and habitat improvement is therefore a key issue. Another problem is that of infrastructures. According to Jon Swenson, vice-president for Eurasia of the International Bear Association (IBA), the effect of a ski station would cause the same environmental impact as a town of 3,000 inhabitants and bears would keep at least 10km away from such facilities. ^[2]

Likewise, in a paper presented in February 1989 at the Eighth International Conference on Bear Research and Management, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Christopher Servheen of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stated that the continued reduction in habitat further isolates the two subpopulations in the Cantabrian Mountains, "making them more susceptible to the demographic and genetic consequences of small population size."^[3]

The Valle del Naranco, one of the valleys that may become car parking and access to the San Glorio winter sports development if the project goes ahead

Although Spain's Ministry for the Environment has opposed the development, the regional government of Castile and León has recently adopted major changes in regional planning which may permit the future development in the park, including specifically removing the existing prohibition (March 2006) to the construction of ski resorts in the protected area of Fuentes Carrionas, if seen to be of financial benefit to the local community.

According to a 2006 report published by the Ministry of the Environment, ^[4] the Picos de Europa has "conservation problems at local level" due mainly to the role tourism plays, but also because there are

"...no planning regulations for this unequalled territory. The regional government of Castilla and León has commenced construction of a ski resort (Esla 2000), near the San Glorio mountain pass. A new road is also projected between Valdeón and Liébana, in Cantabria. The regional government of Asturias is already constructing another road from Sotres to Bulnes along the summits. Several mountain cable cars are also projected: the final assault has commenced."

On the other hand, the consortium backing the resort claims that their proposal is the only means of preventing the villages of the region from becoming depopulated, a claim refuted by the NGOs leading the campaign against the project, and who, in turn, accuse the promotors of the development of having merely speculative aims.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to help the mountainous regions recover dynamism, the local population of the villages affected have come out in favour of the project, basing their arguments on what is claimed will be an evident boost to the local economy.

[edit] Initiatives

Both sides, on the one hand, the promotor and on the other hand, the association of NGOs opposing the development, have been collecting signatures in support of their respective initiatives.

As of August 2007, the association of NGOs defending the protection of the nature park claims to have collected 11,780 signatures, while the consortium of developers claims to have collected 3,000 signatures.

In addition to the protests of the association of NGOs against the development, a conference held August 2007, organised by SEO/Birdlife, Birdlife International’s Spanish section, together with WWF/Adena, the World Wildlife Fund's Spanish office, and two Spanish bear conservation organisations, Fapas and Fundación Oso Pardo, reaffirmed these organisations' opposition to the project.

The issue has now been raised before the European Parliament, with Euro-MP David Hammerstein requesting the European Commission to look into the funding of the project, claiming that the regional government receives EU funding because of the park's required protection as a most seriously threatened habitat, while at the same time applying for subsidies for the jobs at the projected ski resort and hotel complex.

[edit] Court rulings

On June 28 2007, the European Court of Justice found Spain guilty of breaching European nature conservation law. According to the Court, Spain had failed to designate sufficient Special Protection Areas (SPAs) as required by the EU Birds Directive. ^[5]

At the beginning of 2008, Spain's Defensor del Pueblo, with a direct mandate to initiate proceedings at Spain's Constitutional Court, submitted the following to Castilla and León's department of the environment:

"Que esa Consejería realice las gestiones pertinentes para que se proceda a derogar el Decreto 13/2006, al ser contrario a la legalidad vigente en materia de Espacios Naturales y Evaluación Ambiental, por no haber sido evaluada previamente la modificación del PORN de Fuentes Carrionas y Fuente Cobre-Montaña Palentina, que contiene tal Decreto".

(That the department [of the environment] take the necessary steps to repeal Law 13/2006 as it contravenes current legality as regards the Environment and Natural Parks by not including the law on the Natural Park of Fuentes Carrionas y Fuente Cobre-Montaña Palentina.)

In March 2008, the High Court of Castilla y León ruled that the regional government’s sudden change in its own planning regulations, solely with the intention of permitting a ski resort, not only went against its own regional law, but both the national law on nature conservation and the European Natura 2000 regulations. The Court accepted the results of research submitted by the University of Salamanca and Spain’s Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), both of which strongly criticised plans to develop within protected land. ^[6]