Golf complex work halted after rare bird threatened

October 26, 2006  •  Uncategorized  •  0 Comments

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PLANS to build a luxury golf
complex on protected woodland
have been temporarily
postponed after a legal order
was issued banning the felling
of trees outside the Avila village
of Las Navas del
Marques.

Work had started on October
8 to clear an area of pine forest
- home to the endangered
imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti)
and the black stork
(Ciconia nigra) – for four 18-
hole golf courses, two five-star
hotels and 1,600 villas one
hour’s drive north from
Madrid despite a court banning
the project days before.

Las Navas del Marques mayor
Gerardo Pérez agreed to order
the

work to stop while the
council appeals the court’s
decision.

Spain’s Environment Minister
Cristina Narbona applauded
Señor Pérez’s move to halt the
work. She said: “It is good
news the felling of trees has
stopped.”

The woodlands were classed
as green belt land until 2000
when the Las Navas council sold the land to a private company
that, according to trade
union CCOO, was made up of
politicians from the Partido
Popular led Castilla y León
regional government, the
Avila provincial government
and members of the local town
hall.

Officials from the regional
government then green-lighted
the 2003 application from
a Murcia-based construction
company to build a luxury golf
complex on the land.

At the start of October, judges
at the regional high court of
Castilla y León decided the
felling of trees to make way for
the golf complex should not
continue after receiving a fax
from a coalition of environmentalists,
including
Greenpeace and Friends of the
Earth, that the habitat of two
endangered species was at
threat.

As the regional government
had given the go ahead to the
project, work continued until
Señor Pérez signed the legal
order for the work to stop.

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