Subterranean protection needed for Sorbas Karst park

ENVIRONMENTALIST association Ecologistas en Accion has challenged Natural Resources Management Plans (PORN) for the Sorbas Karst park.
The park, made a protected area in 1989, has Spain’s most important karst landscape. Composed of gypsum, it is one of the best examples of its type in the world.
The association criticised the regional government’s plans, claiming that these have not classified the land according to its environmental value. This in turn would make it unfeasible to put adequate conservation schemes in place, Ecologistas said.
The collective also wants a series of environment protection measures, compatible uses and permitted activities for the park, similar to those of the Cabo de Gata-Nijar park.
Neither have the PORN plans taken into account the caves and other rock formations that make the Sorbas park unique, the association complained. A “real” analysis of the environmental and economic impact of the area’s mining activity was called for.
The Almeria branch of Ecologistas en Accion has raised the question of the Karst en Yestos park and the need to protect its subterranean areas on several occasions, the collective pointed out.