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The regional government of Murcia has announced plans to spend €1 million this year buying up land around the Mar Menor in the latest effort to help the struggling lagoon recover. The initiative focuses on acquiring plots considered to have high environmental value or strong restoration potential, with the aim of expanding the network of protected areas surrounding the water.

 

According to the Regional Ministry of the Environment, the land purchases are currently in negotiation, and officials are keeping the specific properties confidential for now. As they explained, going public with the details could push up land prices and potentially torpedo the deals before they're finalised.

 

Priority is being given to land in ecologically sensitive locations, particularly areas close to existing protected zones that could serve as buffer strips, helping to filter out the nutrients, sediments and pollutants that heavy rainfall regularly washes into the lagoon.

 

This is a particular problem in the Mar Menor, where intense downpours can carry large volumes of nutrient-rich water off the surrounding land and straight into the ecosystem. Wetlands and natural areas act as a kind of green sponge, absorbing some of that before it reaches the water.

 

The regional government already manages 829 hectares of protected wetlands around the Mar Menor that perform exactly this function. Expanding that network would strengthen it further and improve the connections between protected areas, one of the key remaining challenges in the lagoon's long recovery.

 

Any land acquired will be formally incorporated into the network of protected natural areas and linked to existing environmental planning and management frameworks.

 

The land purchases sit alongside a raft of other ongoing work around the Mar Menor, including the recent restoration of the El Carmolí wetland, where more than 300 hectares were expropriated, an old airstrip was removed and more than 18,000 plants were put in the ground.

 

The regional government currently has more than 200 projects under way around the lagoon, with total investment this year exceeding €104 million, covering everything from water denitrification technology to eco-friendly moorings designed to protect the seabed.

 

Image: CARM