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ENVIRONMENT

Spain crowned world’s top Blue Flag beach country for 30 years running

Spain has once again earned the top spot as the country with the most Blue Flag beaches - 683 'playas' - meaning it has now been the world leader in Blue Flags for the last three decades.

Published: 8 May 2024 09:12 CEST
Spain crowned world's top Blue Flag beach country for 30 years running
Spain has a total of 683 Blue Flag beaches. Photo: Marian Florinel Condruz / Pexels

Blue Flags are awarded for their excellent water quality and environmental standards by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) and a total of 51 countries worldwide are judged.

They are awarded to those beaches that meet demands on issues such as hygiene, sanitary conditions, safety, accessibility and the provision of lifeguards. 

This Tuesday, May 7th the Environmental and Consumer Education Association published a list of the blue flags that have been awarded for 2024.

Once again, Spain has come out on top with the most Blue Flag beaches out of a total 51 countries worldwide. This year it has been awarded a total of 683, 11 more than in 2023.

Like last year, the Valencia region has the most number of blue flags with 159, which is six more than last year. Of these, 69 are located in Alicante, 32 in Castellón and 34 in Valencia.

It’s followed by Andalusia with 156 (eight more than in 2023), then Galicia with 125, (the same as last year) and Catalonia with 118 (two less than last year) .

“We have been the country with the most blue flags in the world for three uninterrupted decades and will continue to do so this year. 15 percent of the blue flag beaches in the world are in Spain. This is a collective success because it is only possible thanks to the work of all administrations,” the Secretary of State for Tourism, Rosario Sánchez Grau enthused. “We are a world tourism power and we must also be so in sustainability,” she added.

This year, the region of Navarra was awarded its first ever Blue Flag at the Bahía de Lerate on the Alloz Reservoir, an inland beach.

Several other places also joined the list for the first time including El Toyo in Almería, Cambriles in Granada, El Encinarejo in Jaén, Banys de Forum in Barcelona, El Torres in Vilajoyosa (Alicante), and the beaches of Pobla Marina and Rabdells in the Valencia region.

The organisers also praised seven municipalities that have managed to maintain their Blue Flag status since the programme began in 1987. These are El Carregador in Alcalá de Xivert, San Joan de Alicante, La Fossa de Calpe, Carrer la Mar de Campello, Sant Antoni de Cullera, Nord beach in Gandía and Bastiagueiro de Oleiros beach.

A total of 30 beaches lost their blue flag status this year. Andalusia lost three, the Balearic Islands four, the Canary Islands three, Cantabria one, Catalonia seven, Valencia six, Galicia four and Murcia two.

Virginia Yuste, director of Bandera Azul who was at the press conference, explained that the reasons for losing a Blue Flag are non-compliance with the Coastal Law and poor quality of water.

The full list of Blue Flag beaches for 2024 can be found here. 

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ENVIRONMENT

Spain’s endangered Iberian lynx population doubles in three years

The number of endangered Iberian lynx in the wild in Spain and Portugal has nearly doubled since 2020 to surpass 2,000 last year, the Spanish government said Friday.

Published: 17 May 2024 13:01 CEST
Spain's endangered Iberian lynx population doubles in three years

A total of 722 lynx were born in 2023 bringing their total number in the two countries to 2,021, a record high since monitoring of the species began and up from 1,111 just three years earlier, Spain’s environment ministry said in a statement.

This rise “allows us to continue to be optimistic about the reduction of the risk of extinction of the Iberian lynx,” it added.

Known for its pointy ears, long legs and leopard-like spotted fur, the species was on the brink of extinction just two decades ago due to poaching, road accidents and encroachment on their habitat by urban development, as well as a dramatic decline due to disease in wild rabbits numbers, the lynx’s main prey.

When the first census of the spotted nocturnal cat was carried out in 2002, there were fewer than 100 specimens in the Iberian Peninsula.

The ministry party attributed the boom in lynx numbers to the success of a captive breeding and reintroduction programme launched in 2011. Since then, 372 lynx born in captivity have been released into the wild.

“The recovery of the Iberian lynx population in Spain and Portugal constitutes one of the best examples of conservation actions for endangered species in the world,” it said.

The ministry said the Iberian lynx population has continued to rise since 2015, when the International Union for Conservation of Nature downgraded the threat level to “endangered” from “critically endangered — its highest category before extinction in the wild.

Most Iberian lynx can be found in the Donana national park and Sierra Morena mountains in the southwestern region of Andalusia, but the conservation programme has reintroduced captive-bred animals to the Spanish regions of Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Murcia, as well as Portugal.

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