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Environmental Conflicts and Conflict Management: Some Lessons from the WADI Experience at El Hondo Nature Park (South-Eastern Spain)

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Abstract

The concept of conflict contains some ambiguity that clearly appears in the relationship between scientific objectivity and socioeconomic subjectivity – albeit objectivity and subjectivity can sometimes exchange their respective adjectives. The case of El Hondo ponds (Valencia Region, Spain) represents a meaningful example. The Regional Environmental Administration enacted water use laws aimed at assuring the survival of a rare population of ducks (Oxyura leucocephala). Unfortunately, the same laws were considered to jeopardise the survival of the local (human) Community of irrigating farmers, the Riegos de Levante. Another regional case concerns with the preservation of the plant species Limonium. The palliative remedy of this conflict consisted in separating as much as possible the areas and the resources linked to wildlife conservation from the ones essential to the regional economy. Separation implies neither debate nor mutual understanding: it is a remedy, not the desirable management of the conflict.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ciencias del Mary Biología Aplicada, Universidad de Alicante, Ap. correos 99, E-03080, Alicante, Spain

    Carlos Martín-Cantarino

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  1. Carlos Martín-Cantarino
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Correspondence to Carlos Martín-Cantarino .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipto. Biologia Evoluzionistica,, Leo Pardi, Università di Firenze, Via Romana 17, Firenze, 50125, Italy

    Felicita Scapini

  2. Dipto. Studi Storici e Geografici, Università di Firenze, Via San Gallo 10, Firenze, 50129, Italy

    Gabriele Ciampi

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Martín-Cantarino, C. (2010). Environmental Conflicts and Conflict Management: Some Lessons from the WADI Experience at El Hondo Nature Park (South-Eastern Spain). In: Scapini, F., Ciampi, G. (eds) Coastal Water Bodies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8854-3_4

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