They are demanding an expansion of Las Tablas de Daimiel to connect the park with the Ojos del Guadiana.

Anibal de la Beldad ( @anibalclm ) / Carrión de Calatrava (Ciudad Real), May 10 (EFE) - The Ojos del Guadiana Vivos Association and the Tablas de Calatrava Association have, through a hiking route in which nearly a hundred people participated, called for the "urgent need" to expand the Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park in the province of Ciudad Real.

Rafael Ubaldo Gosálvez, a member of the board of trustees of the Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park and the Ojos del Guadiana Vivos Association, told EFE that "the necessary ecological and functional continuity of the ecosystem makes it essential that the expansion of the national park connect its current perimeter with its main and original source, the Ojos del Guadiana."

That is, the flood zone upstream of the park to the Villarrubia de los Ojos wastewater treatment plant, including the Ojuelos de Villarrubia, and the flood zone downstream to the Pellejero stream and the Praos area in Carrión de Calatrava.

Floodplain

This association also calls for the protection of the floodplain between Villarrubia de los Ojos and the junction of the Gigüela and Záncara rivers upstream of the park, and the floodplain from Calatrava La Vieja to the junction with the Jabalón River downstream.

Specifically, the nine-kilometer route undertaken this Saturday covers an area that these associations believe should be part of the National Park.

The route started at the Hermitage of the Virgin of the Incarnation, a former mosque in the suburb of the Muslim city of Calatrava, and continued toward the Quintillo area, passing through the Calatrava Zúa and mill, before heading toward the Malvecinos Bridge and the Praos and Valdecañas areas.

Natural and cultural values

Throughout these spaces, participants enjoyed explanations from Rafael Gosálvez, a professor at the University of Castilla-La Mancha; Enrique Luengo, a retired meteorological observer from the State Meteorological Agency in Ciudad Real; Alberto Celis, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Seville; and Carmen Sánchez, a guide at Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park.

This team of geographers has detailed the natural, cultural and heritage values ​​that support the designation of the Guadiana River throughout the municipality of Carrión de Calatrava and the Praos and Valdecañas areas as an extension of the Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park. They have highlighted above all the Bronze Age motillas of Malvecinos and Carrión and the Muslim city of Calatrava.

Ten years of demands

The Ojos del Guadiana Vivos Association has been advocating for over ten years for the expansion of this National Park, which would entail increasing the area to 20,000 hectares from the current 3,000, thus complying with Spain's current National Parks Act, which states that among the requirements for a territory to be considered a National Park, it must have at least 20,000 hectares of continuous, unfragmented, and unconfined land.

In the coming weeks, new routes will be implemented in neighboring municipalities, with the intention of highlighting the need for this expansion, which they have considered "more necessary than ever today in light of the highly impactful projects that are planned to be developed in the upper Guadiana River basin and that will affect the rivers, wetlands, and aquifers of this territory." EFE

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