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Up to date, the Pro Dunas  Association has submitted and registered the  document with over  1.600 Signatures collected, addressed to the Mayoress of the  Town Hall of Marbella as well as to the Delegate of the Provincial Environment Department and also to the department of Demarcation of the Coast Andalucía-Mediterráneo. We entrusted them the mission to defend  the preservation of  this jewel  of dune and have placed all our trust in our politicians and leaders in power, in the belief that they will acknowledge the value of the petition of the citizens, and will give maximum protection to this bio-diversity .

BARRONAL DE LA MORENA
ECOLOGICAL DISASTER IN THE VALUABLE DUNES AREA
OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF MARBELLA

In the dunes of “El Barronal de la Morena”, barely 3 km from Bahía de Marbella and located between the beach restaurants “Hipopótamo” and “Las Flores”, heavy duty machinery has ground down all the wild undergrowth over a large area of an intact and unspoiled ecosystem with abundant indigenous flora. This habitat sheltered a large population of wild birds and other animals.

It is one of the last dune areas south of the N-340 road that remains intact with all its original ecosystems. The environmental impact, should the constructions of housing and urban development go ahead,  would entail the irretrievable loss of an area now totally free of any construction, unique in the whole coastal area of Marbella and the footprint of the former dunes landscape of Las Chapas will be lost forever; this strip of dunes area is at its largest breadth right in this area of Barronal de la Morena.

There is a predominance in this area of communities of dense thicket in the interdunes valleys, sand dunes grasslands, and dune marram grass on the dunes crest, and Lentisk Tree / Mastic Tree shrubs on the sands, the most extensive on the whole Costa del Sol.  There are species such as Euphorbia bastica and Pancratium maritimum (Sea Daffodil), which are included in the Red List of Andalusian Threatened Flora, as well as up to 50 species of indigenous flora that have been identified by our Association.

This is the last chance for the dune of the ‘Barronal de la Morena’ to survive the unlimited urban development on the coastal strip of the municipality; it must be saved from destruction and national and international legislators must protect the coastal ecosystems under threat of extinction. Also the Coastal Law and the Urban Planning Law of Andalucia protect a 500 m wide area of influence of the shoreline.

The citizens demand the preservation of one of the last natural redoubts that have so far survived the atrocious process of urban development that has prevailed on the Andalusian coast for a long time. Let us trust that our leaders will listen to the voice of the people and take a sharp turn to save this dune jewel of Barronal de la Morena.  

We are receiving reports on wide spread presence of  VERTEBRATES – BIRDS – REPTILES AND MAMMALS FAUNA, that have (had) their habitat in these dunes of  “Barronal de la Morena”, including species that have already been catalogued as “in danger of extinction” in the Red Book of Vertebrate Animals Under Threat in Andalucia  (Regional Ministry for the Environment 2001).