09/12/2012 00:00
TW
0

Palma.—A recent report published by the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) on climate change in Spain and how it is affecting human activity, shows that the number of times seawater has broken over breakwaters in the Balearics and Canary Islands will increase by 35 percent.

With climate change continuing on its course, the WWF had even worse predictions for Cantabria where seawater will exceed breakwater levels by 100 percent and between Malaga and Algeciras by 250 percent.

The WWF report: “The impact of climate change on coastal areas” commissioned by the Environment ministry warns that by the year 2050 the sea will have completely covered beaches across large areas of Spain. It is predicted, particularly that beaches in Cantabria will recede by 15 metres by that year.

The report also shows how climate change will affect the habitat of the “capercaillie” (Tetrao urogallus) in the north of Spain. The number of birds of this species will have decreased by 97 percent by the end of the century, claims the WWF, signalling its extinction.

So far as biodiversity in Spain is concerned, the vast range of plants and animals which currently inhabit the country, the WWF forecasts that the habitat of the brown bear will be vastly reduced and that more than half Spain's known species could be adversely affected.

The WWF said that it will be necessary for the Environment ministry to make sure that all natural spaces are well conserved this century and make it easy for wildlife to move from one habitat to another.

Existing wildlife parks, currently part of the so-called Natura 2000 Network, said the WWF, will have a key role to play as a refuge for creatures escaping the adverse affects of climate change. The WWF said it would also be important to maintain natural territory features in a healthy state of conservation such as rivers, wetlands, woods, and steppes.