In Andalusia, Activists Fight to Save Centuries-Old Olive Trees from Solar Plants

Summary

After the Andalusian regional gov­ern­ment approved the instal­la­tion of 25 mega-solar plants on olive groves, activists have gath­ered over 56,000 sig­na­tures to stop the devel­op­ment, cit­ing con­cerns about the removal of cen­turies-old trees and the envi­ron­men­tal impact. The gov­ern­ment has defended the ini­tia­tive, stat­ing that the expan­sion of renew­able energy has not come at the expense of olive grow­ing, and dis­puted cam­paign­ers’ claims about the num­ber of trees that would be removed to make way for the solar plants.

After the Andalusian regional gov­ern­ment approved the instal­la­tion of 25 mega-solar plants on 5,500 hectares of olive groves, activists gath­ered more than 56,000 sig­na­tures to stop the devel­op­ment.

The ini­tia­tive, part of the Andalusian government’s energy tran­si­tion pol­icy, would involve cut­ting down about 500,000 cen­turies-old trees in the provinces of Jaén and Córdoba.

While Andalusian pres­i­dent Juan Manuel Moreno said regional offi­cials would plant 1.5 mil­lion new trees across 2,500 hectares, activists and researchers said this fig­ure would cover less than six per­cent of the car­bon diox­ide sequestered by the cen­te­nar­ian trees annu­ally.

Research from the Aquae Foundation shows that young olive trees sequester 10 to 30 kilo­grams of car­bon diox­ide annu­ally. Separate data from the University of Jaén esti­mates that cen­te­nar­ian trees absorb about 570 kilo­grams of car­bon diox­ide yearly.

As a result, activists from SOS Rural and Campiña Norte Against Solar Megaplants, the groups that col­lected the sig­na­tures, esti­mated that the gov­ern­ment would need to plant almost 30 mil­lion new trees to off­set the emis­sions that these trees would no longer absorb.

The protest comes after Campiña Norte Against Solar Megaplants filed a crim­i­nal com­plaint against Greenalia and FRV Arroyadas, two com­pa­nies devel­op­ing solar plants, in January. The case is pro­ceed­ing through the courts.

“It’s con­tra­dic­tory to talk about decar­boniza­tion while destroy­ing cen­turies-old trees, which are the largest nat­ural car­bon sinks we have,” Natalia Corbalán, national spokesper­son for SOS Rural, told local media.

Campaigners also high­lighted the social impact of replac­ing the olive groves with solar plants, includ­ing the loss of tra­di­tional jobs har­vest­ing the trees with­out any obvi­ous replace­ments.

Campaigners in Lopera allege that a new solar plant cov­er­ing about 425 hectares would require the removal of 42,000 olive trees.

A report by the La Loperana coop­er­a­tive esti­mated that this would result in the loss of about two mil­lion kilo­grams of olives each har­vest, which could pro­duce about 400,000 liters of olive oil.

The coop­er­a­tive cal­cu­lated that it would lose about €3.1 mil­lion in wages and olive oil sales, rep­re­sent­ing about 25 per­cent of Lopera’s econ­omy.

The cam­paign­ers also alleged that some landown­ers were forced to lease in unfa­vor­able con­di­tions because the gov­ern­ment labeled the projects as pub­lic util­i­ties, which allowed them to pur­sue expro­pri­a­tion pro­ceed­ings against hold­outs.

However, Jorge Paradela, the regional government’s min­is­ter of indus­try, energy and mines, called cam­paign­ers’ claims ​“mis­taken and dis­torted.”

He told Canal Sur Radio that the expan­sion of renew­able energy in Jaén has not come at the expense of the expan­sion of olive grow­ing.

“In the province of Jaén, there are 4,000 more hectares of olive groves today than there were five years ago,” he said.

Paradela also dis­puted the cam­paign­ers’ esti­mate about the num­ber of trees removed in the Lópera to make way for the solar plant, indi­cat­ing it would be closer to 13,000.

• Diario de Seville
• Oleorevista