{"id":10444,"date":"2026-04-23T15:57:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/10444\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:57:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:57:01","slug":"spains-national-high-court-accepts-wwfs-appeal-against-the-demarcation-of-donanas-marshlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/10444\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain’s National High Court accepts WWF’s appeal against the demarcation of Do\u00f1ana’s marshlands"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"Jos\u00e9
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\nThursday, 23 April 2026, 11:31<\/p>\n

Spain’s National High Court (Audiencia Nacional, AN) has formally admitted the contentious-administrative appeal filed by the WWF against the boundary demarcation of the Do\u00f1ana marshland area, which was also appealed by Andaluc\u00eda’s regional government due to disagreements with central government over the limits of the tidal influence zone.<\/p>\n

The appeal concerns the boundary demarcation order approved last October by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, through the directorate-general for coast and sea, regarding the Do\u00f1ana marshes. The WWF appeal joins the one filed by the Junta de Andaluc\u00eda, which was also recently accepted for review by this court .<\/a><\/p>\n

The WWF highlights that opposition to this boundary demarcation is not limited to the WWF alone, but is shared by other state bodies such as the Do\u00f1ana biological station (CSIC), the Guadalquivir river basin authority (CHG), Andaluc\u00eda’s regional government, the management of the Do\u00f1ana Natural Area and Hinojos town council. All these interested parties have already spoken out against the proposed boundary.<\/p>\n

The secretary-general for the WWF in Spain, Juan Carlos del Olmo, stated that “it is surprising to have to defend at this point that Do\u00f1ana is also a freshwater marsh when all the scientific studies done over decades unequivocally demonstrate that its marshes are freshwater wetlands of pluvial-fluvial origin”.<\/p>\n

“The WWF opposes this demarcation as it is currently proposed since it redefines the nature of the Do\u00f1ana marshland, considering that approximately two-thirds of the current marshland would be tidal land, and this proposal could have irreversible ecological consequences”, said the head of this environmental organisation in Spain.<\/p>\n

In Olmo’s opinion, “one of the key aspects of the controversy revolves around Monta\u00f1a del R\u00edo, a rise in the land parallel to the Guadalquivir river which the coastal authority maintains was artificially created in 1983, while the WWF and various scientific bodies, such as the CSIC, support the claim that its origin is not artificial, although it has been restored on several occasions due to erosion”.<\/p>\n

Juan Carlos Olmo believes that “this proposed boundary demarcation, adopted independently and against the majority opinion of the Do\u00f1ana participation council, will force a reinterpretation of the management of the National Park, potentially causing saltwater intrusion into freshwater areas and jeopardising conservation efforts endorsed for decades by the scientific and technical community”.<\/p>\n

More than 270 scientists have already expressed their opposition to the current demarcation promoted by Madrid’s Ministry for Ecological Transition, arguing that “it contradicts the existing scientific consensus on the hydrological functioning of Do\u00f1ana”.<\/p>\n

The scientific community further warns that “this decision could have irreversible consequences, such as the loss of its freshwater wetlands and the profound alteration of its most valuable ecosystems, protected by national and international law”.<\/p>\n

The WWF representative is urging the Ministry to “listen to science and abandon this proposed boundary demarcation, which could lead to a lengthy legal battle and delay essential projects committed to the recovery of Do\u00f1ana’s threatened biodiversity.” He also calls on the Ministry to “initiate a new procedure based on the broad scientific consensus regarding the ecology and functioning of this important marshland”.<\/p>\n

Despite accepting this WWF appeal and that of the Junta, the National High Court has not yet ruled on the precautionary measure of suspension requested by the appellants. The Ministry’s decision has opened a demarcation process for state-owned, maritime-terrestrial public domain assets in this part of the Do\u00f1ana marshlands, which includes land in the Huelva towns of Almonte and Hinojos and the town of Aznalc\u00e1zar in Seville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday, 23 April 2026, 11:31 Spain’s National High Court (Audiencia Nacional, AN) has formally admitted the contentious-administrative appeal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6561,4198,6563,4125,6564,3512,1114,2746,6565,17,582,6562],"class_list":["post-10444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-admits","tag-against","tag-appeal","tag-court","tag-demarcation","tag-donana","tag-for","tag-national","tag-processing","tag-spain","tag-the","tag-wwfs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}