The Spanish Society of Ornithology (SEO) and the Spanish Association for the Conservation and Study of Bats (SECEMU) have addressed a letter to the new Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, to request that the millionaire injection of European recovery funds intended to rehabilitate homes do not serve to destroy nests found in these buildings.
The two NGOs emphasize that this may be an opportunity to end the unnecessary destruction of nests, shelters and other nuisances to urban biodiversity through rehabilitation works.
In this way, they explain that “numerous” protected species, especially birds and bats, breed and take refuge in human buildings and the rehabilitation works of buildings mean, in most cases, the disappearance of the holes in which they are found. settle.
These include, for example, swallows, planes, swifts and bats dwarfs and Cabrera, which breed, take refuge, hibernate or rest in cavities, cracks or gaps in roofs and facades.
At present, the Ministry is processing a Royal Decree to regulate the assistance programs in matters of residential rehabilitation and social housing of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
In the letter, they request the new minister, Raquel Sánchez, that the aid is conditional on compliance with the regulations for the protection of biodiversity so that considerable progress can be made in solving the destruction of nests and refuges for urban biodiversity.
“That conditions be put on aid”
“The new aid programs in residential rehabilitation and social housing of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan will mean a huge increase in these rehabilitation works in the coming years and, if conditions are not imposed to protect the species, they could have an irreversible impact on the wildlife that inhabits urban environments & rdquor ;, say these entities in a statement.
They also remember that between 1995 and 2016, more than half of the swift breeding population was lost in the UK due to the wave of rehabilitation of historic buildings thanks to funds provided by the National Lottery, the rehabilitation of social housing and the demolition and rehabilitation of old buildings. That performance ended with thousands of nests in buildings.
The two organizations urge the Executive to include a condition that the Royal Decree regulating the assistance programs for residential rehabilitation and social housing in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan include a condition that ensure full compliance with European directives for the protection of species and habitats, especially to what supposes the possible destruction of nesting, resting or wintering places for birds and bats and, in general, for all species of fauna and flora.
The executive director of SEO / BirdLife, Asunción Ruiz, has pointed out that «at a crucial moment for cities, in which the Plan for the rehabilitation of housing and urban regeneration is called to activate and channel the necessary rehabilitation, especially in the energy, buildings and housing field, we have the opportunity to include the urban biodiversity variable to prevent the works from damaging the wild species that inhabit urban environments ”.
The representative of the SECEMU conservation commission, Roberto de la Peña, has stated that the development of this plan constitutes a «excellent opportunity to finally integrate wildlife protection needs who live with neighbors or workers, in many cases for years, using the buildings as places of rest, reproduction and breeding.
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