“Liquid assets”: Coastal wetlands, regional parks, and the protection of Mediterranean deltas
Gorostiza, Santiago LU
; Parrinello, Giacomo
and Aguettaz-Vilchez, Daniel
(2024)
In Coastal Studies and Society
3(4).
p.181-202
- Abstract
- After a century of accelerating drainage, in the 1960s coastal wetlands became the object of unprecedented protection campaigns around the world. This paper compares the history of three successful cases of coastal wetland protection in the Mediterranean between the 1960s and 1980s: the Rhône (France), Po (Italy), and Ebro (Spain) River deltas. As most of the coast of Mediterranean Europe, these three cases were at the centre of renewed redevelopment attempts, to further expand intensive agriculture, industry, and seaside tourism, which invariably involved wetlands drainage. In these three cases, protection was achieved by establishing “regional parks” in the deltas. We argue that it was not by chance. Wetland advocates at the... (More)
- After a century of accelerating drainage, in the 1960s coastal wetlands became the object of unprecedented protection campaigns around the world. This paper compares the history of three successful cases of coastal wetland protection in the Mediterranean between the 1960s and 1980s: the Rhône (France), Po (Italy), and Ebro (Spain) River deltas. As most of the coast of Mediterranean Europe, these three cases were at the centre of renewed redevelopment attempts, to further expand intensive agriculture, industry, and seaside tourism, which invariably involved wetlands drainage. In these three cases, protection was achieved by establishing “regional parks” in the deltas. We argue that it was not by chance. Wetland advocates at the international, national, and local scales coated their plea for protection in the language of economics, making the case for wetlands’ value as “liquid assets.” They argued that wetland protection could rhyme with development and, abandoning initial projects to protect deltas as national parks, focused their efforts on creating regional parks instead. Stemming from the European regional planning movement, the regional park framework proved expedient to combine development expectations and wetland protection. Thanks to modular land use zoning, it promised to combine productive activities with protected areas, without imposing uniform restrictions on the entire deltas such as those often associated with national parks. The history of these three coastal parks, therefore, sheds light on the counterintuitive but strong relationship existing between coastal development and protection by uncovering the discursive strategies and unlikely coalitions that made conservation possible. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/e738dead-eefd-4290-b7d2-253046d9fb98
- author
- Gorostiza, Santiago
LU
; Parrinello, Giacomo
and Aguettaz-Vilchez, Daniel
- publishing date
- 2024-10
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Mediterranean, coast, wetlands, conservation, wetland drainage, MAR project, regional parks, deltas, regional planning, environmental history
- in
- Coastal Studies and Society
- volume
- 3
- issue
- 4
- pages
- 22 pages
- publisher
- SAGE Publications
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85204777097
- ISSN
- 2634-9817
- DOI
- 10.1177/26349817241282720
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.
- id
- e738dead-eefd-4290-b7d2-253046d9fb98
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-12 13:37:54
- date last changed
- 2025-06-16 13:59:11
@article{e738dead-eefd-4290-b7d2-253046d9fb98,
abstract = {{After a century of accelerating drainage, in the 1960s coastal wetlands became the object of unprecedented protection campaigns around the world. This paper compares the history of three successful cases of coastal wetland protection in the Mediterranean between the 1960s and 1980s: the Rhône (France), Po (Italy), and Ebro (Spain) River deltas. As most of the coast of Mediterranean Europe, these three cases were at the centre of renewed redevelopment attempts, to further expand intensive agriculture, industry, and seaside tourism, which invariably involved wetlands drainage. In these three cases, protection was achieved by establishing “regional parks” in the deltas. We argue that it was not by chance. Wetland advocates at the international, national, and local scales coated their plea for protection in the language of economics, making the case for wetlands’ value as “liquid assets.” They argued that wetland protection could rhyme with development and, abandoning initial projects to protect deltas as national parks, focused their efforts on creating regional parks instead. Stemming from the European regional planning movement, the regional park framework proved expedient to combine development expectations and wetland protection. Thanks to modular land use zoning, it promised to combine productive activities with protected areas, without imposing uniform restrictions on the entire deltas such as those often associated with national parks. The history of these three coastal parks, therefore, sheds light on the counterintuitive but strong relationship existing between coastal development and protection by uncovering the discursive strategies and unlikely coalitions that made conservation possible.}},
author = {{Gorostiza, Santiago and Parrinello, Giacomo and Aguettaz-Vilchez, Daniel}},
issn = {{2634-9817}},
keywords = {{Mediterranean; coast; wetlands; conservation; wetland drainage; MAR project; regional parks; deltas; regional planning; environmental history}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{4}},
pages = {{181--202}},
publisher = {{SAGE Publications}},
series = {{Coastal Studies and Society}},
title = {{“Liquid assets”: Coastal wetlands, regional parks, and the protection of Mediterranean deltas}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/26349817241282720}},
doi = {{10.1177/26349817241282720}},
volume = {{3}},
year = {{2024}},
}