The Doñana marsh floods during the winter due to the input of water from rivers and rain and dries out in summer. It is a natural phenomenon described by researchers and conservationists for decades in multiple scientific studies, including those conducted by José Antonio Valverde, considered the father of Doñana for being one of the first defenders and promoters of the conservation of this biodiversity reserve that was protected as a National Park in 1969.
However, the Directorate General of Coasts (dependent on the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, the Miteco), in a resolution dated October 10, 2025, questions the scientific consensus to classify these Doñana wetlands as tidal marshes, which are flooded by seawater thanks to the effect of the tides. This reclassification allows Miteco to expropriate a strip of 118,772 meters under the application of the Coastal Law, as it considers that land part of the “maritime-terrestrial public domain (DPMT),” which grants the State control over the space, a situation that could have direct consequences for its future conservation.
The initiative of the Directorate General of Coasts has provoked an almost unanimous reaction against it from the organizations involved in the conservation of Doñana, including the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, which also depends on Miteco. Ultimately, it will be the National Court that must resolve the dilemma, after admitting for processing the contentious-administrative appeal filed in this regard by, among others, WWF Spain, the conservation organization that was born in Doñana and owns part of the land affected by this new classification.
We are talking about lands integrated into the National Park, whose conservation and management depend on the Junta de Andalucía. The Ministry, however, exercises a role of guardianship and coordination, carried out in accordance with the scientific advice of the Doñana Biological Station, dependent on the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC).
The resolution of the Directorate General of Coasts on the delimitation of the marshes implies a change of ownership, but it should not necessarily affect the management of the National Park. However, the scientific community is concerned that the conceptual errors about the origin and dynamics of the marshes introduced in the reports accompanying that resolution could lead in the future to justify catastrophic interventions for their conservation.
According to Miteco’s proposal, approximately two-thirds of the current pluvial-fluvial marsh of Doñana would be considered tidal marsh, which not only stems from an incorrect definition of the ecosystem but could have “serious consequences on the protected habitats and species of the area,” explains WWF’s spokesperson in Doñana, Juanjo Carmona. “The criteria applied in Doñana are erroneous and do not reflect the ecological reality of the wetland, which could cause irreversible impacts on its marsh ecosystems.”
Talking about the marsh as a tidal system would in the future require intervention to “remove obstacles” that currently prevent the flooding with tidal waters of the current freshwater marshes, even in summer, “something completely unprecedented in the history of this territory, as documented in management documents and scientific literature of recent centuries.”
One of those obstacles would be the so-called “Montaña del Río”, a kind of natural barrier generated by a sedimentation process that was restored in 1983 precisely to preserve the watertight character of the land where water from rain and river channels accumulates. However, based on reports prepared by the companies Tragsatec and Idyma, Miteco has questioned all the scientific literature to consider that the Montaña del Río was an engineering work that altered the natural dynamics of the marshes and currently prevents the arrival of tidal water. In other words, if the marshes are covered today with freshwater, it is because a human intervention in the 1980s altered their natural functioning, according to the Ministry’s criteria. The logical next step would therefore be to remove the artificial barriers to allow the marshes to receive seawater again.
The appeals filed have already led to a judicial conflict in the National Court. The court has so far denied the adoption of precautionary measures but has not yet addressed the substance of the matter. WWF, which has been involved in the conservation of Doñana since before the creation of the National Park, trusts that the Justice will rule in their favor but believes that a lengthy process could “delay essential and committed projects for the recovery of Doñana’s threatened biodiversity.”
Hinojos appeals to its historical ties with the Marsh
Those who oppose the plot twist that the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (Miteco) intends to impose on the description of Doñana’s natural dynamics recall that these marshes are recognized by all international organizations as a freshwater wetland of international importance for numerous species of waterfowl, both breeding and wintering, and as a vital stopover on the migratory route between Western Europe and Western Africa.
One of the institutions that has appealed the Miteco decree is the Hinojos Town Hall, owner of the largest area of marshes affected by the expropriation and which has started a battle to protect not only the municipal heritage but also the emotional relationship that the town of Hinojos has maintained for centuries with the so-called Galician Marsh.
The Hinojos Town Hall, under article 206 of the Mortgage Law, registered the property in the Property Registry in its favor on September 23, 1957, then claiming that it belonged to the town of Hinojos “since time immemorial.” Tradition says it was granted to the town of Hinojos by King Alfonso X in 1253.
Hinojos already stopped a previous expropriation process during the Franco era, and then the Justice ruled in favor of the Town Hall. In response to its claims, Miteco replied that the existence of a previous ruling questioning the inclusion of the Galician Marsh lands of Hinojos in the public domain does not prevent the Administration from carrying out another delimitation “if the previous one has been considered incomplete, incorrect, or inaccurate,” also taking into account changes in the determination of the public domain regarding legislation.
In a message conveyed to its neighbors through social networks, the mayor of Hinojos, Joaquina del Valle, described the Ministry’s initiative as a “monstrosity that ends the Doñana we know.”
The international Ramsar program, where the world’s largest wetlands are cataloged, describes the Doñana marsh as a “clay plain of fluvial influence and limited marine influence,” resulting from the filling of the ancient estuarine system of the mouths of the Guadalquivir and Guadiamar rivers. The marine influence is, indeed, “limited,” insist both WWF and the scientific community and the different organizations that have opposed the delimitation during its processing, among which are also the Doñana Biological Station (CSIC), the Junta de Andalucía, the Doñana Natural Space Directorate, the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, the National Parks Autonomous Body, and the Doñana Framework Office – all dependent on Miteco itself. “Denying that the Doñana marshes are pluvial-fluvial and that the tidal influence is very limited and localized means ignoring the abundant existing scientific evidence – studies, research, and publications – that describe its natural dynamics throughout the 20th and 21st centuries,” WWF states.
“The Ministry’s proposal is based solely on a study prepared by a private consultancy focused on a single variable – the theoretical surface of tidal flooding under current conditions – based on a single simulation that has not been peer-reviewed or validated by any scientific institution,” the conservationists also point out.
The resolution of the Directorate of Coasts contradicts other legal and planning documents, such as the Guadalquivir Hydrological Plan, the PORN, and the PRUG of the Doñana Natural Space, as well as projects promoted by Miteco itself, such as Doñana 2005 or the Framework of Actions for Doñana, whose main objective is the recovery of freshwater marshes, not their conversion into tidal ecosystems. WWF recalls that, according to Doñana regulations, the Participation Council should have been formally consulted by Miteco before advancing with this project.
Centenary of the man who fought for the reserve
T. L. P.
Little egrets, grebes, and flamingos refresh themselves mid-morning in the waters still inhabited by pikes of El Lobo and Mari López. It is late June, and these estates located between Hinojos (Huelva) and Aznalcázar (Seville) remain partially flooded due to the abundant rains of winter and spring. These are the same marshes that José Antonio Valverde, the first director of the Doñana Biological Station, watered with Jerez wine (in the photo below) in May 1969 to celebrate the purchase, by WWF, of the lands that would become the largest biodiversity reserve in Europe. On March 21, the centenary of Valverde’s birth was celebrated; he passed away in 2003. With the help of Adena (WWF’s Spanish branch), the scientist worked tirelessly until on August 14, 1969, 57 years ago, the Council of Ministers, meeting in La Coruña, declared 35,000 hectares in the heart of Doñana a National Park. The landscape has barely changed thanks to a group of romantics who then managed to stop the drying out of Doñana.
