SEO/BirdLife has presented allegations showing that the General Urban Planning Plan of Alcalá de Henares will critically affect the SPA called “Cereal steppes of the Jarama and Henares rivers” and the populations of two globally threatened species: the Great Bustard and the Lesser Kestrel. In addition, SEO/BirdLife denounces that the environmental impact procedure followed violates Madrid’s Environmental Impact Assessment legislation and also the European Habitats Directive.

This Plan aims to allow a growth of 100,000 inhabitants by reclassifying 980 ha in the SPA south of R2. SEO/BirdLife considers that the execution of this plan, together with the one recently presented in Meco, will mean in the short term the loss of the natural values that make this SPA one of the most important in the centre of the peninsula and probably in Europe for steppe birds. This is demonstrated by the studies carried out in this Area by SEO/BirdLife on the Lesser Kestrel and by the National Museum of Natural Sciences-CSIC on the Great Bustard.