Invasive Sheep Devastate Olive Groves in Eastern Spain

L’ALCOIÀ, Spain – The Valencian Community’s Unió Llauradora i Ramadera (Farming and Livestock Union) has again drawn atten­tion to the agri­cul­tural dam­age caused by wildlife in the Alicante Mountains, par­tic­u­larly empha­siz­ing the effects of inva­sive species such as the Barbary sheep.

In a study pub­lished in August, the union esti­mated that dam­age from ungu­lates causes direct losses for farm­ers in the region of €10 mil­lion annu­ally, approx­i­mately €4.7 mil­lion or 47 per­cent, of which was incurred by olive groves.

The regions of Marina Alta, Marina Baixa, El Comtat, L’Alcoià, L’Alacantí and Alto y Medio Vinalopó were found to be most severely affected.

One of the ani­mals high­lighted in the study is the Barbary sheep, a wild bovid endemic to regions of the Sahara. Although increas­ingly rare in its native range, it has pro­lif­er­ated in many areas to which it has been intro­duced.

In Spain, this first occurred in the Sierra Espuña Regional Park, where the sheep was intro­duced as a game species in 1970. Since then, it has spread to at least eight dif­fer­ent provinces. The pop­u­la­tion in Alicante alone is now esti­mated to com­prise approx­i­mately 2,500 indi­vid­u­als.

Invasive species orig­i­nat­ing in North Africa are believed to be pro­lif­er­at­ing more rapidly than in pre­vi­ous decades because of the increas­ing rate of deser­ti­fi­ca­tion that is trans­form­ing the Spanish land­scape into one more akin to their native habi­tat. This is par­tic­u­larly true of the Alicante Mountains.

Because of its adap­ta­tions to moun­tain­ous, arid ter­rain and its abil­ity to feed on a vast array of woody plant species, the Barbary sheep can cause con­sid­er­able dam­age to tra­di­tional moun­tain­side olive groves. In addi­tion, it can per­form a stand­ing jump of more than two meters, mak­ing stan­dard fenc­ing inef­fec­tive.

The union used the case of Miguel Ángel García as an exam­ple of the prob­lems fac­ing farm­ers because of these species. An olive farmer and oil pro­ducer in L’Alcoià, his plot clos­est to the moun­tains has suf­fered exten­sive and increas­ing dam­age over recent years, with the 2023 har­vest total­ing only 300 kilo­grams: 1,000 kilo­grams less than the pre­vi­ous year.

Speaking to the Olive Oil Times, L’Alcoià locals expressed a range of opin­ions on the pres­ence of the exotic species, none of them pos­i­tive. While all were con­cerned about the ani­mals’ effects on the local econ­omy and tra­di­tions, many believed their envi­ron­men­tal impact was of even greater con­cern.

The area is renowned for its nat­ural beauty, and its moun­tains and ravines pro­vide an impor­tant refuge for many species found only on the Iberian penin­sula. In addi­tion to increas­ing com­pe­ti­tion for food and habi­tat, inva­sive exotic species are vec­tors of var­i­ous dis­eases that can spread to native wildlife and live­stock.

Another rec­og­nized dan­ger the ani­mals pose is their abil­ity to jump road­side bar­ri­ers, lead­ing to increased traf­fic acci­dents in the regions where their num­bers have soared.

Such a com­pre­hen­sive range of prob­lems means that calls to con­trol the pop­u­la­tions of these species have broad sup­port. However, the sit­u­a­tion is com­pli­cated by fre­quently chang­ing and even con­tra­dic­tory leg­is­la­tion, as suc­ces­sive gov­ern­ments bring oppos­ing ide­olo­gies and pri­or­i­ties to bear.

The Barbary sheep, for exam­ple, was included in the Spanish cat­a­log of inva­sive alien species in 2013, mean­ing that the national gov­ern­men­t’s offi­cial pol­icy was to erad­i­cate the species entirely from the coun­try.

Hunting groups, how­ever, obtained an excep­tion for the region of Murcia, the point of ori­gin for the species in Spain. In 2016, how­ever, a Supreme Court judg­ment removed this and other excep­tions and reit­er­ated that all inva­sive alien species must be erad­i­cated.

However, in 2018, the 2007 Natural Heritage and Biodiversity leg­is­la­tion was reformed, effec­tively rever­se­ing the 2016 judg­ment.

With this reform, alien species that were already inva­sive before 2007 are no longer sub­ject to erad­i­ca­tion. Instead, they are sub­ject to con­trol through hunt­ing and fish­ing. Even fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing the sit­u­a­tion is that hunt­ing is ille­gal in pro­tected envi­ron­ment areas, and hunt­ing leg­is­la­tion varies between autonomous com­mu­ni­ties.

However, many res­i­dents believe an effec­tive bal­ance can be found within the cur­rent frame­work.

“The bal­ance between the con­ser­va­tion of game fauna and the pro­tec­tion of agri­cul­ture is a com­plex but man­age­able chal­lenge,” García said. ​“The Alicante Mountains, with their rich bio­di­ver­sity and impor­tant agri­cul­tural sec­tor, can serve as a model for other regions fac­ing sim­i­lar prob­lems.”

“With an inte­grated and sus­tain­able approach, it is pos­si­ble to pro­tect the inter­ests of farm­ers while con­serv­ing the nat­ural wealth that defines this beau­ti­ful region,” he added. ​“It is there­fore cru­cial to imple­ment sus­tain­able man­age­ment strate­gies that bal­ance the con­ser­va­tion of game fauna with the pro­tec­tion of agri­cul­ture.”

Another con­tentious issue is com­pen­sa­tion. While wildlife man­age­ment is the Department of the Environment’s respon­si­bil­ity, the Department of Agriculture is respon­si­ble for com­pen­sat­ing farm­ers for losses incurred by wildlife dam­age and pro­vid­ing aid for pre­ven­ta­tive mea­sures.

In June of this year, how­ever, the Department of Agriculture announced that it would pro­vide funds only for pre­ven­ta­tive mea­sures in the Valencian Community and not for com­pen­sa­tion as pre­vi­ously announced. Furthermore, the funds appro­pri­ated for these mea­sures amounted to €250,000, a fig­ure in stark con­trast to the €6.3 mil­lion in neigh­bor­ing Catalonia’s bud­get.

According to the union’s data, total losses from wildlife dam­age in rural Valencia in 2023 amounted to over €45 mil­lion.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has pre­vi­ously stated that cur­rent mea­sures are not suf­fi­cient to curb the expan­sion of var­i­ous species or the fre­quency and mag­ni­tude of their impacts on human activ­i­ties and the nat­ural envi­ron­ment. It has spo­ken specif­i­cally of wild boar, roe deer, bar­bary sheep, ibex, mou­flon and rab­bit, which are increas­ing in pop­u­la­tion and range.

• Agronews Comunitat Valenciana
• Union de Uniones
• Abogacía Española