GREENPEACE has threatened to take legal action and stage major protests if the Spanish government pushes through plans to relax coastal planning regulations.

The environmental group is angry following comments by Spain’s Environment Minister Miguel Arias Canete promising to make the Coastal Law ‘more compatible with economic growth’.

The proposals would make it easier for waterfront developments to be approved, leaving the coastline exposed to potential environmental damage.

The Coastal Law defines an area within 100 metres of the beach as public land, meaning that thousands of foreigners with property within the zone no longer have ownership, despite buying in good faith before the law was introduced in 1988.

This has led Britain and other European countries to put pressure on the new PP government to modify the law.

Many expats were granted a 30-year concession, but with many of those set to expire in 2018, the government is being forced to take action.

via Green Guide Spain.

Every year Palm Trees throughout the Costa Blanca are attacked by its arch enemy the dreaded ‘Rhynchophorus ferrugineus,' better known as red palm weevil. Torrevieja's City Council has started pruning the thousands of palm trees around the town, which in total amount to around 3,800.

Torrevieja's Councillor of Parks and Gardens, Carmen Gómez Candel said “we are following the guidelines set by the Ministry of Agriculture as mandatory sanitary measures to control and eradicate the plagues of weevils.

These regulations require corporations to ensure that local palm pruning takes place in January or February. In the case of the ‘genus Phoenix' it is recommended that pruning is limited and to only cleaning the dried leaves.

After pruning, in addition to pesticide treatments it's recommended that the area of operation is also cleaned. Although a similar operation took place during the summer by City Councils, the legislation encourages all individuals and communities of owners who have palm trees to also have them pruned.

The red palm weevil, is relatively large, between two and five centimetres long and usually a rusty red colour. Its larvae can excavate holes up to a metre long in the trunk of palm trees, thereby weakening and eventually killing the Palm. As a result, the beetle is considered a major pest of palm plantations, including the coconut palm, date palm and oil palm.

Originally from tropical Asia, the red palm weevil was first recorded in Spain in 1994 and is difficult to detect before the damage is down, resulting the Palm tree being cut down and removed.

This new project marks IBERDROLA’s entry into the renewables market in Asturias, one of the few regions where the leading company in developing renewable energies in Spain did not have wind power facilities.

IBERDROLA is firmly committed to the development of wind energy in Asturias, where it already has in its portfolio projects with a combined capacity of some 160 MW, making it one of the leading companies in the sector in this region.

El Candal wind farm will be located between the municipalities of Castropol and Boal and the company’s subsidiary, IBERDROLA INGENIERÍA, will be in charge of both the construction and commissioning stages.

The technology used will be by Gamesa, making it IBERDROLA’s foremost supplier in this region as well. A total of 19 G80 model wind turbines are going to be installed, standing 67 metres high and with an 80m rotor diameter.

The work now being started by IBERDROLA follows the purchase of two wind power initiatives from various companies in Asturias last summer: the aforementioned El Candal and the Segregal wind farms, with have a combined capacity of 76 MW.

The two facilities are scheduled for commissioning next year, as they are part of the pre-allocated renewable energy facilities approved by the Government for completion before 31 December 2012.

Almost 100 people will have to be hired for the construction of these two wind farms and a further 20 new permanent jobs are expected to be created for the operation and maintenance stage. In this regard and as is the company’s usual policy, IBERDROLA will give priority to local companies in the region.

It should be highlighted that over 95% of the company’s wind farm operators in Spain are from the municipalities where they have been set up, normally in rural areas.

These wind farms are expected to be joined by a further three wind power facilities, which were awarded to IBERDROLA by the Government of the Principality of Asturias last year and together will account for a joint capacity of 80 MW. These are pending the new wind power regulations to come into force in Spain from 2013 onwards.

These three wind farms are: Regodeseves, 40 MW capacity and located in Villanueva de Oscos; Pico Cuiredo, 32 MW, located between the municipalities of Boal and Illano, and Pico Daviella, 8 MW, in Taramundi.

Shaikha Fatima Bint Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum is very fond of Tyson who was born at Nakhlee Breeding Centre and has lived at the Zabeel Palace since he was three months old.

Shaikha Fatima’s decision to gift Tyson to Natura Parc thrilled the team there and Tyson is a happy addition to the natural animal and plant centre in Santa Eugenia, Mallorca, Spain, where exotic species of mammals, birds and reptiles are cared for together with a stunning botanical collection on a Mediterranean garden landscape.

Dubai Kennels and Cattery (DKC) managed the relocation. A specialised Cheetah travel box was constructed. The DKC liaised with Natura Parc to make smooth arrangements with regard to Tyson’s arrival, flights, the veterinary requirements for the ‘import into Spain of wild carnivores’ and his subsequent arrival and settling in.

DKC was assisted by Dr Mohammad Thunayan and Dr Rachael Middleton and the Al Wasl Veterinary Clinic team for Tyson’s veterinary tests and other requirements, ensuring that the relocation was successful.

The team from Natura Parc reported back that Tyson arrived well and quickly settled in, bonding with his new Professional Animal Trainer, Jenny Amann, who commented “Not surprisingly, he immediately made his way into the hearts of all people taking care of him.”

via gulfnews : Cheetah relocated to Spain park successfully.

The Terra Natura animal park in Benidorm has welcomed a new resident this week, a four metre long King Cobra called Frank!

Frank has arrived at the park along with a female companion, a 3.8 metre specimen. Both are now settling in to their new home.

With a bite that could kill an animal the size of an elephant in less than 15 minutes, and that would include humans, the snakes were brought to the park under high security. Frank´s fangs measure 11 millimetres and would give a very nasty bite, should he become free to roam. That is why the park has built a special enclosure to make sure that the snakes are never able to break free.

The King Cobra would normally dine on other snakes in the wild, but as that may involve a reduction in the other displays at the park, trainers have gradually adjusted their diets to prefer rodents, which are often camouflaged inside the shed skin of other snakes. Over time, the balance of snake taste is reduced, to the snakes get more used to eating the rodent part of the meal.

The two snakes will live apart in their new home, at a controlled temperature of 28 degrees. Despite the potentially scary facts about Frank and his size, the female of the species is the more aggressive of the two and is able to store sperm for several years, able to fertilize herself without male intervention. This is believed to be a defence mechanism as the males are sometimes known to devour the female once the mating process has occurred.

Thrushes flying south for a warm Mediterranean winter this week will, as usual, run a gauntlet of illegal hunters who kill some two million birds in their peak hunting season: the six late autumn weeks in which Spanish skies fill with migrating birds.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of hunters in Castellón, eastern Spain, and neighbouring areas will have already set their so-called parany traps – copses filled with glue-covered twigs and spikes.

Most of the illegally trapped birds will end up as tapas in Spanish bars, fried tidbits that locals claim are part of a cultural heritage stretching back to Roman times. “There are pictures of parany traps in the mosaics of Pompeii,” said Miguel Angel Bayarri of the trappers’ Apaval association. “This is a tradition that has existed for centuries and that we will continue to fight for.”

Hunting of song and mistle thrushes and their cousin the redwing is not illegal, but the methods used are, despite attempts by legislators to introduce exceptions.

Campaigners say the painful deaths suffered by the birds, whose wings are glued together before their necks are broken or their heads squashed, contravene European wildlife laws.

“There have been sentences against this in the courts in Madrid and at the European court in Luxembourg,” said Mario Giménez, head of SEO/Birdlife in the eastern region of Valencia.

Up to two of every five birds that fall into the parany traps will not be thrushes. Hundreds of thousands of other migrating insectivores such as robins, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and black redstarts will die. Local birds, including warblers and owls, also fall prey to the parany trick.

“That only happens if the trap is badly operated,” said Bayarri. “Our members only catch thrushes. This is just banning for banning’s sake.”

But Giménez said few parany operators went through the laborious process of cleaning glue off birds that may not be hunted.

“Even those cleaned up with dissolvent often don’t survive,” he said.

Campaigners say it is time politicians, whose attempts at legalising the traps in Valencia’s regional parliament have been stymied by Spain’s higher courts, publicly disavow a tradition that contravenes EU law. But protecting local traditions wins votes in rural areas where setting and emptying traps may also involve evenings or weekends of food, drink and partying.

Hunting continues, even though Apaval has this year asked its members not to set the traps, where recordings of birdsong are used to lure passing birds into thickets of trees. Unable to use their glued wings, the birds fall to the ground and are killed by hand.

At least 340 functioning parany traps have been identified in the past few weeks, according to Spain’s Association of Environmental Officers. “They are only the first ones discovered so far this year,” said a spokesman. “In previous years we have found some 2,000 traps.”

“The hunting continues, it is just not so flagrant,” said Giménez. “We have seen the traps and heard the birdsong recordings that they use. Now when they hear a car, they do at least turn the machine off.”

Those caught using the illegal parany method can be fined up to €200,000 (£170,000) and may also end up with a criminal record.

Previously, special whistles were used to attract the birds, but these were replaced by tape-recordings and, now, digital devices.

While the thrushes were once an important food source in the countryside of eastern Spain, birds are now mostly sold secretly to bars and restaurants. Many are stored in freezers to be sold later.

Campaigners fear that with a change in Spain’s government due after a general election on 20 November, authorities will once more turn a blind eye to illegal hunting of migratory birds.

“The People’s party is expected to win, and that is the same party that has tried to legalise this in Valencia,” said Giménez. “We don’t want a new government turning the clock back.”

via The Guardian.

Fertility experts from America’s Harvard University and the University of Murcia, Spain, studied sperm from hundreds of men, aged between 18 and 22 and kept record of everything they ate for months. Each volunteer was assessed to ensure they were in finest shape and had no other problems that may affect their reproductive system.

All of them were told to record of every day meal for several months. Researchers found those who ate a high proportion of junk food had poorer quality sperm than those who ate nutritious diet on the daily basis. Although the subjects who ate junk food had regular exercise, their sperms were not good enough to survive.

The study also showed that those who ate junk food including trans fats were found to have the worst quality of sperm.

Foods that have been shown to boost men’s fertility include eggs, salmon, natural yogurt, nuts, seeds, berries, sweet potatoes, broccoli and asparagus.

So, guys reject junk foods and start eating fertility booster.

via Junk Food Makes Healthy Men Infertile: Study.

No significant damage was immediately recorded by the seismology centre in Madrid, and there were thought to be no injuries. Data will be updated throughout the morning.

This whole area of Spain in known to be on an earthquake belt and recent events and scientific speculation has suggested that a major earthquake maybe immanent.

Map and data provided by Google and EMSC.