UN petitioned to protect the Mar Menor

A team trying to protect the Mar Menor, “inland sea” on the Southern Costa Blanca, have travelled to New York where they have petitioned the United Nations to help protect vulnerable eco-system.

The trip, which has been made to coincide with “Earth Day”, is being made after locals came up with a novel idea to protect the Mar Menor after failing to convince local authorities to do more.

Rather than keep on arguing with officials about how best to protect the eco-system, the United Nations (UN) will be presented with a petition asking that the Mar Menor be given a “legal persona”.  If this were agreed it would be the first eco-system in Europe to have its own legal status.

Effectively that would allow the trustees of the Mar Menor to take legal action on its behalf and in the process deal with the pollutants that are killing the water system.

Those seeking protection for the Mar Menor say each time it rains chemicals from nearby farms wash into the sea causing a new episode of anoxia. Chemicals used in agriculture can remove all the oxygen from the water killing all the fish and plants that make up the eco-system.

Although discussions are taking place and some measures have been proposed to deal with the problem authorities have been slow to react. The seeming inability to respond quickly and effectively is what has prompted locals and conservationists to try the extreme measure of trying to have the UN protect the Mar Menor by providing it with a legal persona.

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