The Biodiversity Foundation, a public foundation of the Government of Spain, under the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, has acquired the Cañada del Espino estate, in the municipality of Serrejón, province of Cáceres (Extremadura), for the environmental restoration and ecological recovery of an important area that makes up the Monfragüe National Park.

Of the 300 hectares of surface area of the aforementioned estate, 115 hectares are located inside the National Park and make up a shady slope that contains some manifestations of Mediterranean forest in a good state of conservation. However, the shady area is, for the most part, altered by eucalyptus reforestation, so it requires restoration work to recover its natural and landscape values and, especially, as a habitat for native species.

It should be noted, in this sense, that 15 hectares of the estate within the Park constitute a 40-year-old stand of Pinus pinaster (commonly known as Pino rodeno), with a locked thicket, and that in the other 100 hectares – degraded by the reforestation of red and white eucalyptus – there are small discontinuities occupied by patches of Mediterranean forest in a compromised state of conservation.

As an auspicious fact, the experts mention that the area on which action would be taken maintains favourable conditions that facilitate the regenerative potential of the Mediterranean forest: a wetter ombroclimate and a temperate temperature regime.

The acquisition of this estate, which will contribute to the ecological recovery of land that today makes up Monfragüe, is part of the acquisition policy set out in the Statutes of the Biodiversity Foundation. In addition, it complies with the provisions of Law 1/2007 of 2 March, on the declaration of the Monfragüe National Park with respect to the suppression of uses, facilities and activities that are not compatible with the activities of the Park.

To this end, public action addresses the most important mitigation and correction measures such as environmental restoration and ecological recovery of the territory, in particular, of the areas affected by reforestation of pines and eucalyptus, as stated in Annex II of the aforementioned Law. In fact, this action by the Biodiversity Foundation is in addition to the enormous effort that the Autonomous National Parks Agency has been making in the area, for several years, in which it has eliminated 1,000 hectares of eucalyptus reforestation.