Summer is ending and like every year swallows, martins and swallows They return to Africa, where they will spend their time. winter. They won’t return until next spring. The challenge is to return to find their lair as they had just left it and prevent it from being destroyed during the battle. building renovationFor example.
Another year according to El Periódico de Catalunya of the Prensa Ibérica group Rural agents once again made a determination a significant number of nests are clogged or outright destroyed. To prevent this from happening, people in rural areas intensified their actions. preventive inspections. However, if damage occurs, criminal sanctions are imposed. significant fines. Moreover, not only those in rural areas file files, the Prosecutor’s Office also follows them up and sometimes the case ends in conviction.
This summer only in the Barcelona region More than 10 fines.
An example: head of a society of property owners He had repaired the rainwater collection channel on the roof of a building in a town in Barcelona. HE construction worker destroyed all the nests common plane (Delichon urbicum)), a bird from the swallow family located on the upper part of the front.
More than ten fines have been imposed for this reason in the Barcelona region this summer alone.
It was May and the samples found in the area were in the middle of their incubation period. This behavior made the community leader and the worker sit on the pier At a court in Granollers for a crime against wildlife.
Fine and two years without work
A. agreement Presenting the file before the prosecutor’s office complaintavoided greater punishment for the community leader and the mason; six to two years’ imprisonment, plus fine and disqualification.
After the agreement, the two agreed to reveal the facts and the judge gave him a sentence. 1,200 euro fine and disqualified from practicing a trade or profession involving construction work or the repair of facades and external walls, and 1,440 euros and the same ban for two yearsThis limits their work in the industry.
The sentence available to El Periódico is comprehensive: “Therefore decisive action Although the two defendants knew and accepted that the animals living in these nests were species protected by law, the nests occupied by birds of that species, together with their eggs and chicks, “They were completely destroyed.”.
Thus, the analysis continues, their reproduction, eggs breaking and harming the offspring are prevented. It was a neighbor of the property who notified rural agents.
The judge insists that the common swallow is a species protected by the Berne Convention, European directives and Spanish law. This regulation not only prohibits hunting, possession and killing, but also prohibits the performance of acts that would cause discomfort and make reproduction impossible. The Spanish Penal Code also penalizes this behavior, especially anyone who “engages in activities that impede or impede” the reproduction of protected species. Even if slots are empty, they are still protected.
Special authorization
So how can things be done? There are swallows in the building? “A special permit is required from the Department for Climate Action, and this normally includes compensatory measures, such as the obligation to install artificial nests, if granted,” he explains. Jaume BoschHead of rural agents in the Barcelona area.
“When they call us, we examine them and try to promote them.” Preventive actions. “If the problem is not resolved and the nests are finally destroyed, we prefer sanctions and complaints that can go all the way to the Prosecutor’s Office,” he says. This summer it was implemented only in the Barcelona region. More than 10 fines.
Such cases still occur in some cities. washes the nests with a broomBecause the swallows’ droppings bother him. In any case, most of it consists of studies and reforms.
“We are slowly improving through municipal councils, but still There is a lack of awareness. “There are still people who do not know that these species are protected and that the nests cannot be destroyed in winter,” he explains. bosch. At the Institut Català d’Ornitologia (ICO) a census of swallows, swallows and swallows, as well as bats, is being carried out; so people can check if there are registered nests in their building.
Over the last few years, the environmental services of the Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office have filed numerous complaints against people who destroy nests of protected species in old houses.
Rural officials recall that these birds swallow thousands of mosquitoes every day
He didn’t just blame laborers or masons The blame is not on those who carried out the protest and the heads of the neighborhood, but on the managers of the companies carrying out the work, as in the case of the renovation of a building in the Catalan capital where four holes were covered with a metal grill. ventilation to prevent birds from living and nesting. common swallows (apus apus). Three specimens were trapped and unable to get out. A neighbor warned and people in the countryside removed fences to save the birds.
In fact, according to Bosch, architecture school and the construction industry already include some measures to protect wildlife: “If we keep biodiversity away from our cities, We complicate the future. Moreover, These birds swallow thousands of mosquitoes every day“.
The prosecutor’s office also filed a criminal complaint against a person who repaired the bellows “without any justification or permission”. broke the martin nest of two houses It was on the facade of a building.
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Contact address of the environmental department:[email protected]