The magazine about the RIA LAB Plan: Boo Ra Living Lab of RIA Association Santander Bay (Spain)

2011 Number 1

Who we are Asociacin RIA C/ Jos Barros, Locales Municipales s/n, 39600 Muriedas- Cantabria (Spain) Telephone Number: (+34) 942 250 025 contacto@asociacionria.org Web: www.asociacionria.org

Editorial Direction Diego Cicero Fernndez Design and layout David Pea Garcia Photography Tamanaco Fernndez and Asociacion RIAs files Illustrations David Pea Garca

Translation Eva de la Lama Cicero Contributors Jos Antonio Expsito Camargo, Manuel Pea Fernndez, M Jos Humada Macho, Santiago Canales Arronte, Roco Prez Gan y Emilio Muoz Fernndez Circulation 5,000 copies

Print Fotomecnica Camus Free copies

RIALAB Plan is a pilot Investigation, Development and Innovation scheme for the restoration, order and sustainable environmental management of the hydrographical basin of the Carmen-Boo ria (Cantabria, Spain), initiated in 2010. Nineteen projects have been made in two years, funded by the following administrations: Department of Environment (Government of Cantabria) Studies of the quality of water, inventory and description of water

discharges. Study of the quality of the sediments and their historic pollution, including the description of the natural geochemical bottom for heavy metals. Investigation, Development and Innovation scheme to choose the best indigenous plant for phytoremediation in estuarine sediments polluted by heavy metals and preliminary study of the phytoremediator potential of wild reed (Phragmites australis). Local Councils of Camargo and El Astillero (Cantabria, Spain)

Historic investigation of the development and transformation of the environment; compilation of existing cartographic information, generation of new cartography and creation of a Geographic Information System. Design of Investigation, Development and Innovation schemes of phytoremediation techniques for polluted sediments. Environmental diagnosis of Boo-marsh, study of the impacts of construction works in La Cerrada-Boo de Guarnizo

intersection, and design of the environmental restoration and impact mitigation project. Design of strategies of water masses quality improvement and of land sustainable management, landscape and biodiversity. Audiovisual monitoring of the projects and creation of a web space Environment Investigation Centre and European Union FEDER funds. Innovative experience of social involvement in the local sustainable management of water bodies in Southwestern Europe.

EDITORIAL
Generation after generation we look for
Diego Cicero prosperity, that our children have more Fernndez Bachellor Honours in Environmental grandparents had that purpose and so Sciences President of Asociacin RIA and work in the new industry. Our parents, Director of Plan RIALAB apart from modernizing that industry,

effort and that of our families in order to broaden our future perspectives has left us one of the most valuable legacies: we are the best trained generation in the Spanish history. This is the moment to be responsible and act, this is the moment to use our skills and technology to change things; the content of this magazine is a clear example of what a group of youngsters of this X Generation can do to face current challenges, what we can do to avoid becoming forever the lost generation.

possibilities than those we had. Our

they changed their rural lives in order to

encouraged the tertiary sector and they stared the reconstruction of the democratic and welfare state. The inheritance that we receive now is the price paid by the socialeconomical development in a whole century: an overexploited, polluted and totally out of balance environment, and an obsolete and
There is a light at the end of the tunnel this is not our only inheritance. Our own

To Anne Wheeler.

foundered development model. However,

Quonsimusuli consum o Casdam si popublic re, nin telinc ocatiest orterum me rei clatin nontisque cone populatquem in ius, vem propone fac ta re, viverio vente die conde

20 YEARS LOOKING FOR ALTERNATIVES LOCAL ANSWERS TO GLOBAL CHALLENGES THE BASIN AS MANAGEMENT UNIT LOOKING FOR A BALANCED TERRITORY WATER CORES OF AN ADVANCE LEVEL URBANISM GIS REVOLUTION

2015, FINAL EXAM OF THE WATER QUALITY THE RETURN OF THE MUGIL CEPHALUS TO BOO RIA

WATER QUALITY: FAILED

KEYS TO PASS

THE BASA OF THE RIA IS LIKE THE DREGS IN A CUP OF COFFEE HUMAN PRINTS IN THE SEDIMENT

FROM DUST TO MUD

A VERY HEAVY POLLUTION

POLLUTANTS WITH BOOMERANG EFFECT

42 PHYTOREMEDIATION, THE GREEN SOLUTION

WILD REED: THE CHOSEN SPECIES HISTORY OF THE ENVIRONMENT

MIGERAS, THE LOST NAME OF THE RIA THE PLACE FOR AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK
THE FIGHT AGAINST THE PAMPAS GRASS AND OTHER INVADERS COAL FROM BACCHARIS, THE ALTERNATIVE TO BURNING AND DUMP SITES

REVIVING THE PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY

SANTIAGO CANALES At the beginning of the 90s, a group of exARRONTE Technician in the Environment and Sustainable who had done a study about the Carmen ria Development Department in decided to set up Asociacion RIA, as they Camargo council

20 YEARS LOOKING FOR ALTERNATIVES

pupils of the School for Adults in Camargo

of new working lines, among which are highlighted those promoting the renewable energies with the collaboration of the Environmental department of the Council, and those promoting healthy styles of life, organizing pioneering initiatives at that time: vegetarian cooking courses and conferences, yoga, health self management and personal development.

shared common interests. The group started working on the 16th of July, 1991, (Carmens Day) establishing this as the formal setting up date. A ceremony full of symbolism, in which a walk from Muriedas to Revilla was carried out by the ria, recreating the ancient sea processions, sailors and fishers arriving through the ria to the Carmen chapel. A walk with a demanding background, in which, by the handing in of a manifesto for the recovery of the ria, the fundamental essence of the group was announced. During its first stage, apart from organizing recycling activities, health, everyday life, leisure time and creativity, RIA starts Knowing and living Camargo, a programme which coordinated a variety of didactic routes in the area, including an itinerary in order to show the condition of the ria and to make proposals for its improvement.
On the right, newspaper In 1996 the Board of Directors is renewed, clipings from the first stage of Asociacion RIA reviving the labour with the incorporation and first logo.
6

In 2003, with the incorporation of new members -most of them under 25-, a different stage is opened, in which the scientific nature of the group is pointed out. A stage of focus in the objectives related with study and recovery of the Carmen ria, in which the acronym of RIA is highlighted and evident (Realizacin de Iniciativas Alternativas Alternative Initiatives Realization-).

The new interdisciplinary team starts carrying out in an altruist way rigorous field works, which after two years concludes in a preliminary diagnosis of the estuary and its influence environment. Since then, betting for a sustainable society based on the knowledge and compromise of the human being with the social and natural habitat, it opens ways of collaboration and compromise to make all of us to share the revision and

reorientation of the territory management model.

the regional Governenment. Award followed by many others, as the Special Sustainability Award, or the Sustainable Practises Award,

Thus, through subventions and agreements with the authorities, the scientific

of the Humanity and Environment contest (council of Camargo), for such original projects as Operacion Graffiti, for the education and awareness of youngsters, incorporating social, environmental and creative aspects for the improvement of the urban environment.

collaboration with Spanish and European universities and the participation of groups, local people and social agents RIA sets up different important projects, specially the Re-Knowing the Ria Conferences, which established 2007 as the first time that representatives and citizens of Camargo and El Astillero met to consider and reflect about the condition of the ria. An initiative which set up the bases of change in the collective mind, in which the concept of the ria as the border of municipalities gives place to the agreement of the ria as the link of towns and common working space. In the same year this philosophy is carried to the field of the river Miera- Santander Bay basin, with the project Common Bay, streams which join us, which incorporates ecologic, socioeconomic and cultural aspects, with an important participation rate; its second edition

In this stage RIA intensifies its labour in the territory, setting up several projects of diagnosis and restoration of diminished spaces such as the Micedo marsh or the

in 2008 made RIA deserve the highest acknowledgement that a conservationist

Artistic picture of organization can receive in Cantabria: the skilled team of Asociacin RIA in Premio Cantabria de Medio Ambiente their natural work place. Maichak Tamanaco (Cantabrias Environment Prize), given by Fernndez
8

Sierra de Parayas littoral forest. A wide documentary body is also created thanks to the investigations, highlighting in a special way the documentary At the bottom of the Bay, the Divulgative guide of the environmental diagnosis of Sierra de Parayas littoral forest or the Guide of the Participation of citizens for the sustainable restoration and management of Micedo marsh, among others. In 2010, after years of negotiations with authorities, RIA manages to start RIA LAB Plan, which draws a new and promising horizon for the Association and the ria itself.

20 years of work, passionate implication and compromise with society of almost fifty local people most of them youngsters-, which have bore rich and notorious fruits and which have represented a referent and example of responsible citizenship, transmitting their good fulfilment and enthusiasm to others, among which I have the privilege to be. I hope this frame is useful to express my gratitude to RIA in this important anniversary and to support and encourage them to continue this way. May this be useful as well to express personally that through the sharing of illusions and very private wishes with these people, and having been almost simultaneous the creation of this group and the beginning of my career in Camargo, this moment is for me of special importance and relevance.

LOCAL ANSWERS TO GLOBAL CHALLENGES

For the first time in history the impacts of our activities have acquired global dimensions. The model based on the intensive exploitation of natural resources has generated environmental problems to an overwhelming extent. However, everything is easier if we think that global environmental problems are the sum of many local impacts, which take place simultaneously all around the world. In this context, the way to counteract this destructive trend is exactly to carry out many local actions, focused on mitigating the main problems of each town, area or region; this way, as they are globally fulfilled at the same time, they generate a global restoring effect.

WHAT IS RIALAB PLAN?

RIALAB Plan is one of those local initiatives for the global change. It is a plan which has as the main purpose the restoration, order and sustainable management of a determined place: Bo ria and its hydrographical basin, through avant-garde techniques and models to face the most important environmental challenges in the area, which we have structured in five strategic programmes:

1.

Historic

investigation and

of

human

development transformation.

environmental

The international agreements, European boards and legal frameworks for the sustainable development determine a

favourable playing field. Knowledge and technology from the scientific community and thinking minds are the available tools. But, in order to get noticeable results, we need specific projects to restore the quality of the environment and its function as resources source.
RIALAB Plan around the world
10

where it lives and which will be able to 2. Study and improvement of the quality of water bodies and sediments. recover its traditional uses and establish new ones. Uses which can be from leisureoriented to economic, through the creation 3. Sustainable order and management of the territory, landscape and biodiversity. of employment based on the rational exploitation of the resources, once recovered. But not only is the aim important, the way 4. Research, Development and Innovation in environmental restoration techniques of degraded areas. to get the objectives goes through turning this space into a living lab, from which innovative and exportable solutions derive to the environmental challenges, making the 5. Spreading and involvement of people. fulfilment of a local plan a knowledge source for the international community. A Plan which will generate direct benefits for the local community, which will see an improved quality in the environment

11

THE BASIN AS MANAGEMENT UNIT

A hydrographical basin is that area that takes superficial water to the very same point, usually an estuary or a ria. The basin can be considered as the natural unit of territory order, in which every process is interrelated with the others.

of the management carried out in the basin as a whole. For example, if there is waste dumping in a brook, when the polluted waters get to the ria, it will be affected as well.

Therefore, any strategy for the restoration or improvement of the environmental quality set out in a ria or estuary must be designed

We can not consider the ria a closed system to

Graphic of the location of the solve the existing environmental problems, basin of the Boo ria in Santander as the environmental reality directly depends bay. Victor Dertiano Llata.

for the hydrographical basin as a whole, so it is positively effective.

Quonsimusuli consum o Casdam si popublic re, nin telinc ocatiest orterum me rei clatin nontisque cone populatquem in ius, vem propone fac ta re, viverio vente die conde

12

Igollo

Cacicedo Herrera

Camargo

Revilla

Maliao BoGuarnizo El Astillero

THE HYDROGRAPHICAL BASIN OF CARMEN-BOO RIA

The development area of RIALAB Plan is a small hydrographical basin of 1,200 hectares, which includes the municipalities of Camargo and El Astillero, in Cantabria, in the very Cantabrian coast.

As a territorial unit, the basin is a strategic location of centres space, both because its settlement in the very the hydrographical
basin of the Boo Santander Bay, in the metropolitan area of ria. Dertiano Victor Llata. of population in

3-D graphic of the

the capital city, and because its nature as communications knot, by the harbour, the airport and the main roads and railways. These are characteristics which for more than a century have made RIALAB Plan

It is a Y shaped basin, where you can difference two little interior valleys through which fresh water goes -Collado and Bolado brooks- and a more exterior valley, where there is the Carmen and Boo ria. The three streams of water get together in Micedo marsh, which settled in the geographical centre of the basin is the transitional space of fresh and salt water. Moreover, there are other four different marshes: Cacho, Boo, Negras and Blancas.

a privileged space for the settlement of industries and companies, which at the same time the forerunners of a socio-economical dynamism. A space in the very development, in which the rural and urban, marine and continental get together, and they bring the ideal space to study the socio-environmental conflicts in the 21st century and to experiment new models of management and development.

13

LOOKING FOR A BALANCED TERRITORY

In the next years, it is predictable that we enter in a new industrial and urban development stage in the RIALAB area, promoted by three main reasons: the limited availability of urban and industrial soil in the council of
Interaction among the urban-industrial line of Muriedas and the agricultural landscape of Boo-Trascueto range

boost for the development of Camargo and El Astillero; and the approval of the new urban plans of these areas which will extend the available surfaces of the urban and industrial soil. An important moment in which, depending on the urban planning made, the basin of the Boo ria would become a reference space for the sustainable management of the territory, if we take into account the necessary balance among the urban and industrial

Santander, which probably will favour the growth of the metropolitan area; the imminent opening of the motorway Bay Ring Road, which will become a new

14

development, the reactivation of the primary sector, the conservation of biodiversity and landscape, and the social participation in the configuration of the new plans. Firstly, it is essential to avoid that the urban development has a negative impact on the environment and society living there, taking into account some problems which could be increased, as the fragmentation of the territory, the destruction of the site, landscapes

and cultural assets, the dilution of the original population centres in new residential frames and the trend of the area to become a dormitory town in the outskirts of Santander, lacking personality and social cohesion.

WATER CORES OF AN ADVANCE LEVEL URBANISM

Although roads, railways and motorways going parallel the banks of Santander Bay have been the historical cores around which the main residential and industrial areas have grown, the strategy of the sustainable management of the RIALAB territory suggests to establish the water masses as the core of a network of spaces and agents for the conservation of the biodiversity and sustainable mobility of citizens.
Santander Bay ring road from Venta de la Morcilla going past Revilla de Camargo

15

Meanderings go through the valley transversely to those ways, going through all towns in RIALAB area. Then, the ria and the brooks can be considered as the natural axes of the management of the territory, which once restored may be the main biologic
Motorway and railway bridge, and pedestrian path in the Negras marshes of El Astillero.

interest in the hydrographical basin. In order to define which spaces would those be, the best strategy would consider several participative processes in which people co-decide the areas linked to each population centre, as to protect them as Natural areas of special interest. It is a defined figure in the Law for the Conservation of the

agents, from which could come up secondary agents to connect the different spaces of natural or cultural

Quonsimusuli consum o Casdam si popublic re, nin telinc ocatiest orterum me rei clatin nontisque cone populatquem in ius, vem propone fac ta re, viverio vente die conde

16

Nature of Cantabria as natural spaces which have got a special character in the regional or local area according to their botanic, faunal, ecological, landscape and geological values and to their functions as biological agents, which must be conserved, although they have been occupied or transformed by the exploitation or human action.

Likewise, water masses could become the main axes for the creation of a network of ways for the sustainable mobility population -pedestrian, centres, equestrian, industrial cyclable-, which connect the main complexes, and educative and leisure centres in the valley, as an alternative of
path a clean, healthy and save local mobility. Pedestrian marsh, by Micedo in Muriedas, Camargo.

17

GIS REVOLUTION
GIS (Geographical Information Systems) is the technology applied to look for the solution of the different problems which exist in a space or territory. Thus, GIS are established as an important and practical tool able to capture, stock, manage, analyze, build models and present data related to the determined place where there is a determined intervention.

point out the ease to take decisions, the planning of the management of the resources, the evaluation of the environmental impact or the urban plans, and other possibilities.

In 2011 we have collected and generated all cartographic data of the study area to get it into GIS, getting a kind of digital cartographic library which contains

Nevertheless, and despite the possibilities which the use of this technology presents, it is a tool which must be managed by a human team which knows how to ask questions and design the suitable methods and strategies to get an aim. Even because the most sophisticated tool needs humanity to intervene and adapt to reality.

In RIALAB Plan we have created a GIS of the hydrographical basin of Boo ria, in order to optimize the access and the management of the information of the different studies of diagnosis and in order to answer determined questions and problems of territorial, geographical or environmental nature. An
Map of the water accurate tool which can be used for a diverse bodies done by GIS RIALAB. Victor Dertiano number of functions, among which we must Llata.
18

different aspects, such as topography, uses of the ground, drainage networks and other services, roads, buildings, and archaeological inheritance among others. However, the aim is not a library, but a tool which, combining the previous aspects, can tell us, for example, which are the most valuable areas, under the ecological and cultural point of view, or the most

degraded, for the design of the future model of the environmental management of the hydrographical basin.

19

2015, FINAL EXAM OF THE WATER QUALITY

2015 is the year pointed by the European Union to get the accurate ecological and chemical status of the water bodies. An ambitious compromise which in Spain we acquired in 2003, when we adapted the Water Law to the fixed directions by the European legislation (2000/60/CE, or Water Frame Direction), which means that Europeans must fulfil common aims, in order to assure that citizens have not got quantity nor quality problems, neither today or in the future, of the basic resource which feeds any society and which is not petroleum nor energy, but water.

THE RETURN OF THE MUGIL CEPHALUS TO BOO RIA

During the last decade the investment in drainage to get the waste in residual waters has been very important in the Boo ria basin. This investment goes from the historical Integral Drainage of Santander Bay and complementary works, which meant the installation of main pipe-lines to collect the wastes which go through the valley longitudinally following the banks of the brooks to the works fulfilled by the councils of Camargo and El Astillero to connect districts, urbanizations and houses. The industrial wastes have been also reduced thanks to more restrictive laws in force which have obliged the industries to take pollution control measures. This collective effort, although it is not enough to get the best status, has meant a substantial improvement

It is not easy to get those aims in RIALAB before 2015, but thanks to the collaboration among the administrations and the

organized society, we expect to change the situation in the following years in order to, firstly, recuperate the physical-chemical and microbiological water quality, based in the control and depuration of the polluting
EXAM TOPICS Not leavedry of the human being communities which rivers.Recuperate the water purity would inhabit the water masses if these were Recuperate the associated life in good conditions. You pollute, youpay
20

wastes, and then progress in the recuperation

of the quality of the water masses.

ria it is a very positive fact which mainly probes the important reduction of the

This is shown by facts which we have noticed, as the re-colonization of the ria by the Mugil cephalus, fact which has not happened for decades. The Mugil Cephalus is one of the fish species most resistant to pollution -so it is not indicative of a good water quality-. However, in the case of this

industrial pollution that before made this water an uninhabitable space even for the most resistant organisms.

FIVE YEARS OF IMPROVEMENTS

Nevertheless, apart from the return of the mugil cephalus, consequence of the pursuit of the water quality which RIA has made since 2006, alone and collaborating with the Fundacin Leonardo Torres Quevedo (Cantabria University), we have scientific data which corroborates the substantial improvement in the last years.

gray The clearest example is found in the Bolado Shoal ofin the mullets

and Collado brooks, where the data show Boo ria. that the concentration of faecal wastes has gone from around 175,000 and 300,000 units per litre respectively, to 9,000 units per litre currently. This is to say that the faecal wastes has been reduced in thirty three times.

headwaters of the

21

WATER QUALITY: FAILED

Although the quality of water masses in the basin has significantly improved in the last years, if we analyze the results strictly based on the limits established by the legislation, as if it was the year evaluation at school, unfortunately the mark would be failed. Nevertheless, a good evaluator not only would have into account the numeric results, but would also mark the students attitude, whose efforts in our case have been

important, both in drainage works and the study of the problems and the planning of the solutions. As citizens we must be optimist and not forget that this would be the result of an exam, and that we are in time to pass before the final evaluation which will take place in 2015.

Map of the status of the quality of water bodies based on the data of the 2009 campaign. Asociacin RIA. Victor Dertiano Llata

FAILED SUBJECTS
The origin of this academic failure in water subjects has also been deeply studied, as apart of the pursuit of the quality of water masses, the technicalteam of RIA has done an inventory of every waste existing in the hydrographical basin. We have settled with

GPS, taken photos and taken samples which later have been analyzed in the laboratory. Thus, we have been able to differentiate the pipes which only waste clean rain waters with some kind of pollution, which at the same time we have classified into four types:

22

Didactic scheme. Status of the water bodies of the hydrographical basin of the Carmen Boo ria, based on the analysis of the 2010-2011 campaign. Diego Cicero

domestic water wastes, industrial, agronomic or perhaps a mixture of them. A fundamental work to design a strategy to improve, as every waste type has got a different treatment;

that is to say that not all of them could join directly the complete drainage of the bay as could be imagined.

23

KEYS TO PASS
The water improvement quality strategy planned in RIALAB has as the main aim the recuperation with the less inversion and in the less time as possible. To tell you our priority actions to be carried out, we take into account the previous diagnosis, which indicates that the low stretches of the brooks and the high stretch of the ria are the most polluted areas of the system, which makes them priority. We know as well that the pollution is due to the waste waters directly run into Bolado and Collado

brooks, while the industrial and agronomic pollution is mainly due to the rain water and wind actions which drag dirt to the aquatic ecosystems - diffuse pollution-, being the later less important generally speaking than the first.

PRIORITY ACTIONS
-Connect the most polluting wastes in the low stretches of the brooks to the drainage; then, we will get an important water improvement both in the brooks and in the ria.

-Separate rain water and waste water.

-Apply control measures for the diffuse pollution in the industries and cattle of the area.

-Design and application of measures to avoid wastes due to the overflow of the drains.

24

Image of the pollution in the ria by faecal waters in which the polluted sediments can be seen. On the left: industrial gather outdoors by the ria. Down: overflowing drain in the Boo marsh.

25

THE BASA OF THE RIA IS LIKE THE DREGS IN A CUP OF COFFEE

The same clay particles which darken the water in the brooks when it heavily rains are those which mixed with sea water go to the bottom of the ria, forming the muddy sediments which we call base; these particles are similar to the remaining sediments in a cup of coffee.

the water every day; thus, over the centuries they get as wide as almost appearing over the water in the high tide. Then the vegetation settles on them creating the valuable ecosystem we called marsh.

Moors and marshes are the main units which form a ria. Sediments constantly abandoned by the nutrients which river and sea waters bring, where a great number of animal and vegetal species live and are fed. Real life

The progressive gathering of the sediments makes the intertidal moors. Wide mug deposits which are covered and uncovered by

factories, considered, biologically speaking, as one of the most productive ecosystems in the world.

Quonsimusuli consum o Casdam si popublic re, nin telinc ocatiest orterum me rei clatin nontisque cone populatquem in ius, vem propone fac ta re, viverio vente die conde

26

In Boo ria the sediments are composed by very thin grain particles, due to which they have that common muddy texture. They are sediments classified as limoso. This is because of their settlement in the inner area of Santander Bay, where the main sediment supplies come from the surrounding rivers and brooks, more than from the sea. It is different in the outer area, where the predominant particles are sands; their accumulation gives place to beaches instead of moors and marshes.

sediments does not exclusively depend on the natural processes. The remaining coffee sediments depend on the type of grain (Kenyatta, Colombian), on the type of roast and grind and on the additives (milk, sugar); in the same way, the composition of the sediments in a ria depend as well on the additives human pour into the water as the consequence of our activities. These additives, after some time in the water, will end composing sediments, modifying their natural composition and sometimes even implying their pollution.
Mature marsh in Pedrosa Isle, Santander Bay.

However, the final composition of the

27

HUMAN PRINTS IN THE SEDIMENT

The ria has always been a very attractive space for vegetation and fauna, and in the same way for the human being, who has used it as resources source since at least forty five thousand years, from when the most ancient archaeological traces date, with evidence of shellfish consumption in the area.

Nevertheless, it has been in the last hundred and fifty years of industrial development when the human print has been left in the sediments, and sometimes in an irreparable way. The ria has been a key space for the industry for many reasons: its richness in water, indispensable in any productive process, its nature of

Drained areas Restored saltmarshes Preserved intertidal area

28

navigable path and its proximity to the harbour in Santander, roads and railways for the movement of trade and the cheap grounds, which makes cheaper the setting up of the factories.

the politics which since the 19th century promoted the filling and desiccation of the marshes through their concession to companies and individuals with a triple aim: generate new productive grounds; Historical refilling ease spaces for industries where they done from GIS
based on the in the Boo ria. Map RIALAB by Maria

75% OF THE RIA IS BURIED

The main impact derived from this development is the destruction of moors and marshes, process which is due to

could pour the wastes and eliminate Jose Humada, and source of illnesses.

the marshes, then considered unhealthy investigation of

the transformation of the water bodies by Jose Antonio Exposito Camargo.

29

ACTIVITIES WHICH HAVE LEFT TRACES

The main historical activities which have collaborated to the filling and desiccation of Boo ria have been, in chronological order, the following: Tidal mills: In the Middle Ages the first docks were built, which started to change the ria, with the aim to generate to move the wheels of the flour mills. Infrastructures of the communication: the outline of railways, motorways and roads fills divides the ria in many sections and narrows its ditch. Agriculture and cattle: the first concessions to drain the marshes were made with this objective, which implied the desiccation, but rarely the filling of the marshes.Iron Mining: the cleaning of the clay which covered the mineral just taken out generated muddy waters which were poured into the ria. The complains of the fishermen, shell fishers, cattlemen and sailors made that from 1900 on, the miners had to build docks around the marshes and use them as settling ponds. This was the first historic process of massive filling of intertidal areas. Modern Industry: in 1913 FerroAtlantica
30

ltd (then Electro Metalurgia de el Astillero), key industry in the process of desiccation in the medium stretch of the ria through the scum wastes. Over one of the marshes filled by this industry Standard Electrica was settled in 1927, company which produced

Up: railway bridge in Boo. Down-left: mill in Micedo. Down-right: industry over the refilled area of the ria. The works for a new road can be seen, made on the Boo marsh.

telephone wire and which also helped the filling process. Since 1922 Productos Domoliticos generated real mountains of wastes

around the factory itself in Revilla; some of these wastes were poured into the head of the marsh (Micedo marsh).

31

FROM DUST TO MUD

During the last decades 75% of the sedimentary moors in the Boo ria has been desiccated, but How is the remaining 25%? The conclusion can be summed up: from dust (which the industries were pouring without control for a century) to mud (much polluted mud which we have to face). The diagnosis of the problem started with the study of the pollution by heavy metals. These substances are in the sediment naturally in very little quantities, varying in each ria depending on its settlement. In order to differentiate the natural content of this ria and the industrial content, we have analyzed the different layers ria.
Right: drilling process for the extraction of sediments samples. Anglo-Spanish team, formed by scientifics from Wolverhampton University and Asociacion RIA.
32

of

sediments

accumulated

through the geological history of the

In order to get the samples we have drilled the sediment taking a six metres deep mud column, until getting into the rocky bottom. Once analyzed we have been able to show that the contents

of each metal were constant through almost 2.5 million years, and that it has been in last 100 years of industrial activity when the levels increased spectacularly, which formed a superficial layer of toxic mud. Its thickness goes between fifty centimetres in the mouth of the ria and two metres in the head.

Samples disks for the analysis of heavy metals through X-ray.

33

February

March

July

August

September

34 34

April

May

June

October

November

December

The Life Regenerator. Artistic photograh by Maichak Tamanaco, used as model for the graffiti mural35 35 executed in Sierra de Parayas coastal oak woodland for the landscape integration of a water tank.

A VERY HEAVY POLLUTION

The pollution of the sediments in the Carmen-Boo ria is very heavy. The main pollutants we have found are the heavy metal (as the name indicates). The results of the analysis leave no doubt. According to the European Union there are eleven toxic metals, and all of them are present in the ria, marshes and Collado brook, in quantities over the natural values before human action. Eight of them exceed severely the legal limits, from which they are highly damaging for the environment and the human beings. Intervention values making reference to the need of cleaning up as soon as possible the affected spaces, in the view of the risk for our health. Among the polluting metals stand out the following: zinc, seven times the intervention value; cadmium, which
TOXIC. Artistic photograph by Maichak Tamanaco for the representation of the contamination of the Boo ria. It was made for the exhibition in 2008 Commom Bay, Streams which join us.
36

exceeds five times the intervention value; lead, four times the limit value. They are followed by mercury, which triples the value, copper, barium, chromium, nickel and molybdenum.

MANGANESE AS IN A MINE
Manganese is by far the most abundant pollutant in the ria. The concentrations of this heavy metal get 15% values, one thousand three hundred and sixty five times the natural concentration in the ria. Levels which reach the enough purity needed to exploit a mining deposit of this metal.

Arsenic

Cadmium Mercury

Barium*

Lead*

Copper

GRAPHS OF HEAVY METAL POLLUTION

Cobalt Molybdenum Nickel

Highest concentration allowed Chromium Maximum concentration

Natural concentration

*Graph scale reduction of 1:10.

37

POLLUTANTS WITH BOOMERANG EFFECT

It seemed that we had got rid of the pollutants forever with the water wastes in the ria, but through the years, after describing the same path as a boomerang, these pollutants can return to us through the most direct and the less desirable way: food. This is due to, differently to certain substances which are decomposed by the ria itself, there are substances as heavy metals or aromatic hydrocarbons which are not biodegradable; thus, despite the years they are there, in the sediment. The problem is that from the sediments they go to the organisms fed filtering mud and water, as worms, clams or razor-shells. These, as they get the pollutants, are not able to get rid of them. This way the problem enters into the food chain, where apart from fish, birds and other living beings there are the human beings, who get food from all of them. a Lets worm

1 imagine which that filters

sediments, after a time feeding in Boo ria, gets a unit of lead in its tissues.

38 38

Scheme of the process of the bio magnification of persistent pollutants.

2 If a small fish which feeds from worms ate 10 a day, it would get ten lead units every day.

4 This 3 A big fish entering the ria with the high tide ate, lets say 10 fish a day. It would get 100 lead units every 24 hours. means that nonbiodegradable pollutants accumulate in the organisms and moreover they are transmitted. The circumstance given that the highest the steps in the food chain, the pollutant quantities are constantly increased. This effect is known as biomagnification.
39 39

NOT ONLY SMOKING KILLS

Lately it has been discovered that the main cause for considering tobacco as carcinogen is benzopyrene, considered as the ninth most toxic substance by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in the United States. The alarming point for us is that benzopyrene has also been detected in very high levels in the clams of the Boo ria, which contain other damaging pollutants, as lead or other heavy metals. For this reason the harvest and sale of these clams are totally banned since 2002.

fishmongers, an inn or the direct sale by the poachers. It is a severe problem of public health; its solution goes, apart from the police surveillance, through the awareness

ILLEGAL GATHERING OF CANCINOGEN CLAMS IN THE BOO RIA

However, and despite knowing the ban, SEPRONA has shown that there is a problem of polluted shellfish illegal gathering and sale coming from the Boo ria. In 2008 the so called Operacin Concha (Shell Mission) finished with six poachers arrested who in a few moths had got around 1000 kilos of clams at night, avoiding being seen. Some of this shellfish would have arrived to consumers through a

40

of those who practise poaching and the consumers themselves, who must assure the reliability of the origin of the clams.

HEALTH EFFECTS OF THE MAIN TOXIC SUBSTANCES IN THE CLAMS FROM THE BOO RIA
Lead Alteration of the nervous system, weakness in fingers, wrists and ankles, anaemia, abortion, alteration in the generation of spermatozoids, probably carcinogen, brain and kidney damages which can cause death. Benzopyrene Carcinogen, which can cause death and genetic damages which can be inherited through mother cells, possible toxic effects in human reproduction, accumulated specially in fish, plants and molluscs.

41

PHYTOREMEDIATION, THE GREEN SOLUTION

One of the most important challenges of RIALAB Plan is to find new techniques in order to solve effectively, ecologically, economically feasible and permanently the problem of the pollution by heavy metals in the sediments. In 2010 and with this purpose an investigation line about phytoremediation techniques was carried out. It was based on the use of plants to extract heavy metals from the mud. Initiative funded by the Environment Department of the Government of Cantabria and developed by Asociacion RIA with the collaboration of Wolverhampton University, which has produced encouraging results. Phytoremediation has been used for years in the purification of waste water and in the decontamination of soil and mud. The challenge and scientific development of the study is to be able to put into practice the technique in great
Wild reed shoots in the sediments of the Boo ria, in one of the experimentation trays. Diego Grau Gil-Diez.
42

amounts of littoral and salt sediments, which are highly polluted by heavy metals. It is the severe and widespread curse

which makes the project so appealing; its result may become an exportable solution to those places with the same problems.

WHY NOT DRAINING THE RIA?

When we talk about this problem many people wonder why we do not turn to the traditional dredging, which often are carried out to keep navigable the canal of the bay. This is a solution that at first may seem the easiest and faster; however, when the levels of pollution of the mud affected are so high, the viability of the dredging is questioned for several reasons: During the dredging works pollutants may disperse, affecting the areas of the Bay which are well preserved or of shellfish interests. It would mean the extinction of any possible life in the sediments. Once taken the mud, it must be put into tight compartments, but where should we put them? Hideously monumental work and extremely expensive. In the end, the problem would not be totally solved; it would be taken to another place.
43

WILD REED: THE CHOSEN SPECIES

There are plants in nature which environments, they are able to grow vigorously and extract with their roots the pollutants, which they keep in representative quantities in their tissues (root, stalk and leaves). These hyperaccumulative species are the
Setting up and development of the cultivation test of wild reed in saline mud polluted by heavy metals. Diego Cicero Fernandez.

experiment in which 24 rhizomes were planted in a sample of sediment from the ria, in which the surviving rate with fresh watering was 100%. Reed also has advantages compared with other candidates, as the reproductive ability, both sexual (seeds) and asexual (rhizomes), which ease the natural colonisation of the spaces to restore. Moreover, the rhizomes grow up to half a metre deep, creating threedimensional nets which make viable the treatment of great quantities of sediments.

apart from surviving in very polluted

best for a project of phytoremediation; one of this species is the wild reed or reed - Phragmites australis-, chosen as the most appropriate to apply in the sediments in the Boo ria after the first

Quonsimusuli consum o Casdam si popublic re, nin telinc ocatiest orterum me rei clatin nontisque cone populatquem in ius, vem propone fac ta re, viverio vente die conde

44

It is also a great producer of stalks and leaves, able to sprout new shoots several times a year, which would increase the effectiveness of a strategy of decontamination based on the periodical mowing of the reed in order to take the accumulated metals in the air area, leaving the rhizomes to favour the natural sprout of new shoots. Another key point is that this species is very common, and its natural area spans the Euro-Asiatic continent, which would not be advisable in other places, where it would behave invasively and cause severe ecological problems.

45

FIRST RESULTS
After choosing the wild deer as the most suitable species, a second phase has been developed, focused in establishing what heavy metals the deer is able to extract and accumulate when it grows in the sediment of the ria; the result is that among the metals which are found in polluting quantities in the ria, the deer has absorbed at least
Wild reed growing in the sediment. Diego Grau Gil-Diez.

in its rhizomes of cadmium, nickel, molybdenum, mercury and lead. On the other hand, a preliminary study has been carried out to see the ability of the species to pass the metals from the rhizomes to the air area, -translocation-, in which the first data encourage to think that it would be viable the decontamination of the mud planting this species and managing the mowing of the air areas periodically, specially to clean up the manganese, copper, zinc and arsenic. The accumulation of arsenic in stalks and leaves has been

eleven different types of heavy metals; we must point out its effectiveness in the extraction and accumulation

Quonsimusuli consum o Casdam si popublic re, nin telinc ocatiest orterum me rei clatin nontisque cone populatquem in ius, vem propone fac ta re, viverio vente die conde

46

the most noteworthy. In 2012 we will try to continue this working line with the aim to deepen in the knowledge

of the abilities of the deer and start a pilot strategy of the appliance of the technique in the Boo ria.
Reedbed. Maichak Tamanaco.

47

HISTORY OF THE ENVIRONMENT

of the RIALAB Plan, we have gone a step forward, which developing a methodology instead of considering humans as the main characters it focuses on the study of their impact on the environment. This study covers more than 100,000 years, period in which the human presence in the area has been

A historic survey can be done from several points of views and approaches; it is usual to pay attention to the political events or to the cultural heritage resulting from the human activities. However, in order to get the aims

Sluice gate of the mill in Micedo marsh in Revilla de Camargo. Diego Cicero.
48

probed. We analyze the experimented changes in the different units of the landscape, as a consequence of the socio-economical uses and activities which have characterized the different historic societies, studying as well the impacts derived from the demographic and population evolution. Thus, key data are brought out about the territory and the natural spaces before human action, which help us to establish the ideal horizon to aim at the time of restoring a diminished space, the period and the causes of these changes. Moreover, the historic investigation is useful to identify which the archaeological and cultural heritage in the territory is for its conservation and appreciation of its value. Thanks to the funding from the Camargo and Astillero councils, in 2011 we have been able to deepen in the knowledge of the history of the environment in the RIALAB territory developing the study; its results have been divided into three big periods: Original reference period It is the previous stage to the representative intervention of the human

being in the environment. This period analyzes the geological formation of the basin and the original ecological characteristics, as well as the different phases in the Stone Age, finishing the analysis at around 5,000 ago. Intermediate transformation period. It covers the study of the Metal Age, as well as the roman and middle periods. It takes the analysis of around 45 centuries when the first representative intervention in the transformation of the landscape took place, as the consolidation of the population centre, works on the road networks and an emerging agricultural development. Final transformation period. In this period we study the last 500 years, characterized by the development of the main responsible actions for the great transformation of the landscape, as well as the settlement and consolidation of the modern industry, the establishment of the mixed economy (industrialagricultural), the introduction of exotic species and the construction of great communication and urban development infrastructures.
49

MIGERAS, THE LOST NAME OF THE RIA

One of the most interesting find from the historic investigation of the evolution of the human activities and the transformation of the environment in the RIALAB territory has been the discovery of the previous name of the ria, before it was known as Carmen ria or Boo ria. According to the historian Jos Antonio Expsito Camargo, Migeras or Mixeras was the name which was used to refer to the ria from at leat the first third of the 18th century; this name was used until the first decades of the later 20th century, during which the previous name coexisted with the current names. The first clue that took his attention was found in a map of the Santander Bay dated in 1730, in which it was
1.- Expsito Camargo, J.A. Migeras ria, new knowledge about the names of Carmen and Boo ria. Evidences, interpretation y connection with associated spaces. Volume 79, Revista ALTAMIRA, Centro de Estudios Montaeses, Santander 2010 (pages 171 186).
50

you could find more information about the ria and surrounding area, looking in files and documents not for Carmen or Boo ria, but for Migeras ria. The investigation of the historian of Asociacion RIA continued, finding many references to Migeras ria in cartographic documents, geographic dictionaries, press files and old concession records of marshes being the oldest reference in which it appears in a 15th century document preserved in the General Archive of Simancas.

warned that the ria was called Canal of Mixeras. This brought out his concern, encouraging him to continue investigating in order to light up the most important mystery for his work, as to know the original name of the ria would be worthy not only as a discovery, but also because it is a data which would open a new investigation way where

WHAT DOES MIGERAS MEAN?

Currently, this name is not used to name the ria, although there are still places and infrastructures in the area which are called Migeras o similarly, which let us establish connections: Micedo marsh. This wetland, where Bolado and Collado brooks flow into, at the same time forms the headwaters of the ria. Its name derives from the latin millium (millet), closely connected with the term Migeras and maintaining the memory of this herbaceous in the

The word Migera is a noun related to the milling of cereal and the agricultural exploitation, which brings us to our minds the agricultural past of the area. Exactly, it is referred to the major millet, black millet or millet plant. This variety of millet was a used cereal in human feeding, especially before the massive introduction of corn, so the name of the ria indicates that around it this plant was abundant, which would be a hallmark in the territory.

Breakwater which separates Micedo marsh and Boo ria. Diego Cicero.
51

environment. Mijares buoy. Taking into account the different General Maps of Santander Bay issued by the Board of Santander Harbour, we affirm the existence of a beaconing buoy in the canal of the ria, just opposite Equipos Nucleares S.A, in its junction with Santander Bay, called Mijares Buoy. This name is kept in the chart as trace of the old naming of the area it is settled. Mijeras mill and Mijeras place. In 1614 we know there was a mill in Revilla called Mijeras. Likewise, there was also in Revilla a place in one of its

cornfields called Mijeras place, which currently is called Mijares according to the maps of the Value Cartography of the Economy and Treasury Department of the Spanish Government.

OTHER NAMES FOR THE RIA

Boo Ria. It gets this name as the medium course the ria goes through the centre of Boo de Guarnizo. The origin of the term Boo is confusing, but it clearly has a hydronimic nature, connected with an area where there is plenty of water and fountains and where there would exist paths or entrances.

52

Carmen ria. This name is closely connected with the fishermen and sailors patron saint, as well as of the area of Camargo, Virgin of Carmen. In Her festivity, one of the traditional routes used by the faithful through the centuries to worship Her,

was the coastal one, being usual among the sailors in Santander to get by boats, sailing on the ria nearby the chapel in Revilla de Camargo.

Festivity of El Carmen in Revilla de Camargo. Maichak Tamanaco.

Area and Boo ria from San Camilo. Maichak Tamanaco.

53

THE PLACE FOR AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Excavation of a Middle Age necropolis.

We

interviewed

Emilio

Muoz,

the great work developed through the 33 years of career of this independent and altruistic entity, since 1978 when a group of professionals and amateurs of archaeology set up as an association settled in the council of Camargo. RIA: Which is the archaeological richness of RIALAB territory?

Bachelor of History and one of the founders and main actives in CAEAP (Group for the widening of the prehistoric archaeological studies). CAEAP is responsible of the discovery of more than 1200 sites in Cantabria, which means the 54% of the total amount in the region; these figures show

54

CAEAP: This is one of the key and most representative areas in the Cantabrian coast for any period of study. A privileged area because it has got very well conserved soil and many limy cavities -caves in the limestone-. It is a perfect habitat for human communities from the prehistory due to the abundance of natural resources and its settlement, which is clearly shown with more than 100 sites discovered in the area. RIA: Which are the most significant sites in the basin? CAEAP: There are many sites of scientific importance, as La Verde, 120,000 years old, or El Mazo, the first Palaeolithic recognized site in Cantabria.

There are also remains of Cantabrian castros and of Roman villaes as Alto del Gurug as well as Collado castle, one of the most important medieval sites in Cantabria, and of course El Juyo Cave, a Palaeolithic sanctuary which keeps cave art decorating its walls, many carvings and sculptures and thousands of weapons and tools as offerings (assegais, nails and burins). It also keeps many animal remains, from mollusc and fish from the ria to deer, lions, wild boards, bears and bison among others living in the area. RIA: Which are the threats for the conservation of this heritage? CAEAP: The main threat is represented by the urban and industrial development.

Archaeological investigation works in a calcareous cave.

55

Although the urban plans have a parallel archaeological study, many works are made without this study, and this is a really big problem. There are also the individual actions and ignorance, because many shoddy works are also made without noticing. For example, there are caves used as ceilings or warehouses, or they are directly closed, severely damaging the sites. RIA: And what would be the solutions
Map of archaeological sites in the RIALAB area. Maria Jose Humada.

RIA: Have you got support for the investigation and conservation? CAEAP: The council of Camargo has always supported the defence and study of this heritage. In the case of the regional Government, the problem is that the territory is very rich is sites, so it is not easy to cover all of them. Things have improved through the years, as sites are more protected. Moreover, we have tools as the Archaeological Chart of Cantabria. Astillero is a council worried about its culture and history, as we can see lately in the great amount of book published about this topic.

to these problems? CAEAP: The option is the effective archaeological monitoring in all infrastructures and projects to consider.

Quonsimusuli consum o Casdam si popublic re, nin telinc ocatiest orterum me rei clatin nontisque cone populatquem in ius, vem propone fac ta re, viverio vente die conde

56

RIA: Could it be a new source of economical and employment resources? CAEAP: Yes, undoubtedly. The only thing is that we can not value every site, only the most important and magnificent. We would have to focus on those with touristic and cultural potential, being a must Parayas roman thermal baths, Pendo Cave (Human heritage and with very few visitants, 5,000 a year) or Collado Castle. They are sites where the potential is not properly used due to the lack of advertisements. Firstly it is necessary to do an advertising campaign, as with Soplao cave. RIA: An archaeological park? CAEAP: It is a project presented time ago. This is the place to develop such a project. Starting it would mean an and bronze axe would be profitable without any doubt, as soon as there was a good advertising campaign. It was going to be done with the 1% established for the construction of Bay round motorway planned for cultural activities, but we do not know what happened with the project; we think that a decision has not been taken yet.
CAEAP. Stone biface

important amount of money, but it the RIALAB area.

found in sites of

Outdoor excavation of a site. La Verde. Herrera de Camargo. CAEAP.

57

THE FIGHT AGAINST THE PAMPAS GRASS AND OTHER INVADERS

In the last decades, several animal and vegetal species have become a really plague in the area. A phenomenon generated by the human being, which is taking place globally in such a way that today is considered the second cause for the lost of biodiversity, after the
Workers of Asociacion RIA clearing Pampas grass in Mount Litoral Sierra de Parayas (Maliao). Diego Cicero.

grow without any control unbalancing the ecosystems and affecting negatively the really proper species. This is due that they compete between them for the territory, even expulsing the ones naturally inhabiting the place. The case of the Pampas grass or Cortaderia selloana for RIALAB has been noticed by everyone. It is a species from the Argentinian Pampas, introduced in Cantabria at the beginning of the 20th century to be used in gardening and to fix slopes

physical destruction of the ecosystems. As the name itself indicates, the exotic species are plants and animals which we introduce in an environment which is not appropriate for them, where they

58

on the roads; as the time passes, it has colonized wide areas, really altered, radically transforming the original landscape. The problem is that where they originally would grow bramble, fern, gorse, willow, elder and other

species, which keep many bird species, mammals and other animals, there only grows Pampas grass, and so it is said that it cause a lost of biological diversity.

JOSE LUIS FORESTER GOATS

The usual techniques to control the Pampas grass are based in the surface clearing and the application of chemical herbicides. However, it is evident that they are not effective enough, as the problem is increasing. In Asociacion RIA we have been

Scientist of RIA studying the effectiveness of goats for the control of the Pampas grass. Diego Cicero.

working for years in projects for the restoration of diminished spaces, collaborating with local farmers, with whom we have swapped knowledge and experiences. An example is the collaboration we have with Jose Luis, a farmer from Maliao, closely connected to the coastal mount of Parayas. When we developed the diagnosis
59

works in his area for the future restoration, the invasion by the Pampas grass was identified as one of the main challenges, what brought us to an inevitable question: would there be any herbivorous which they liked to eat the Pampas grass? Theanswer was given by Jose Luis himself when we noticed that he used his goats to mow the Pampas grass and avoided that it invaded the fields. From then on we have been combining the use of the goats with other manual techniques, deepening in the effectiveness of the goats to treat the

air part of the Pampas grass, combined with the clearing and other manual techniques to take out the roots of every plant. These laborious works are important in order to avoid leaving remains of the rhizomes in the soil, because as little as they were, from them new plants would grow. Using these techniques we have managed the total eradication of the Pampas grass in a nine hectare surface, and an important advance in the definition of new alternatives for the management of this problem.

HOW TO MAKE PROFITABLE THE CONTROL OF AN INVADER

Undoubtedly, one of the best solutions to eradicate an invader species is that it has a commercial value in the market, so that the eradication works are profitable and are used to generate richness and employment, without depending exclusively on the public inversion. Apart from the investigation works for the control of the Pampas grass, in Plan RIALAB an investigation project has been carried out for new protocols for the sustainable eradication of the chilca (Baccharis halimifolia), a bush
60

of American origin that currently has invaded most of the rias and marshes of the Cantabrian and French coast. The project has focused in defining

new techniques to avoid the new shoots using sea salt and to recycle the vegetable waste to make vegetal coal.

Firstly, we have looked for an alternative avoid the new shoots through the stumps once cut down the chilca. An excellent alternative to the use of chemicals, as sea salt is cheap and it is present naturally in the water of the marshes, while the use of chemicals as glyphosate is totally contraindicated in aquatic ecosystems. After a first investigation phase in which 673 stumps have been intervened, an important number of dried specimens have been registered. We have observed that most stumps covered by
Quonsimusuli consum o Casdam si popublic re, nin telinc ocatiest orterum me rei clatin nontisque cone populatquem in ius, vem propone fac ta re, viverio vente die conde

SEA SALT, A NATURAL HERBICIDE

to the use of synthesis herbicides to

the water in the high tide have died, while the specimens in areas with less water present a higher capacity for producing new shoots. It is essential to deepen in a technical definition with the aim of verifying its effectiveness, define alternatives of the application of effective and establish the minimum quantity of salt to apply to get the death of the plants due to the saline stress.
Up: detail of a leaf of Baccharis. environmentalist drilling stumps of Baccharis and inserting some cartridges of sea salt.
61

Quonsimusuli consum o Casdam si popublic re, nin telinc ocatiest orterum me rei clatin nontisque cone populatquem in ius, vem propone fac ta re, viverio vente die conde

salt which are less arduous and more Down: RIA

COAL FROM BACCHARIS, THE ALTERNATIVE TO BURNING AND DUMP SITES

Other cost connected to the invasive vegetation control is the management of the generated vegetal waste, usually burnt or taken to a dump site; this means to treat it as a waste, the fume emissions in the burning and the expenses derived from the transportation to the dump site and the dump tax. The alternative thought by Asociacion RIA is based on the marsh itself, using the traditional technique to get vegetal coal. Thus it a new product can be generated with an added value, at the same time that the fume emissions are reduced, and the expenses of transportation to the dump site are eliminated; the a new site is generated recovering the traditional trade almost extinct. The results of the works made
62

in Micedo marsh, source of Carmen and Boo ria, have been excellent. The vegetal coal presents a similar quality to the coal made with the best oak woods. On the other hand, the yield has also been similar, that is, of three wood parts we get one of coal; its sale would mean incomes which could defray the expenses of the contracts of the miners, closing the cycle and defining a sustainable business which would considerably reduce the price of the restoration projects of the Cantabrian marshes.

Traditional process of fabrication of vegetal coal, used for the chilca management in Micedo marsh. Asociacion RIA.
63

REVIVING THE PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY

Lately, while all around the world they start movements which claim the change from authoritarian regimens to democratic estates, in the occidental countries the society claims a more
Participation process, in which people sow oaks with clay balls containing seeds in Mount Litoral Sierra de Parayas.

a change is necessary; however, we consider that our democracy, although it could be improved, already considers different formulae which make possible the active participation of citizens politically speaking and the every day decision-making, without being a member in any political party. These formulae imply the association or implication in the activity of council meetings. Perhaps, most of the problem

direct democracy, participatory and representative, and which does not only mean voting every four years. In Asociacion RIA we agree in that

Quonsimusuli consum o Casdam si popublic re, nin telinc ocatiest orterum me rei clatin nontisque cone populatquem in ius, vem propone fac ta re, viverio vente die conde

64

lies in that the citizens have excessively relaxed, leaving the responsibilities almost exclusively for the politicians, forgetting their own responsibility as citizens. A proof for that is that in the last years the participatory bodies most deeply rooted in our region have almost completely disappeared; the councils have seen their functions and authority reduced up to practically disappear in Cantabria, mainly because nobody has

defended them and because of the lack of implication of the community.

SUDEAU PROJECT
RIALAB Plan considers a specific program to encourage the participation. In 2010 and with this aim a show experience was developed, linked to the source of the ria (Micedo marsh) for the design, experimentation and evaluation of methodologies for the creation of forums of social participation. An initiative framed in the SUDEAU European project, which was approved in the Program of territorial cooperation of the south-western Europe, funded in a 75% by FEDER and in a 25% by the Environment Department of the Cantabrian Government; apart from RIA, other Spanish, Portuguese and French organisms and associations have also been taking part in the project, trying to generate models of encouragement of the participation which can be promoted all through the European Union. The main aim for Asociacion RIA is to generate a methodology to create a net of citizens groups (at least one for town) who may implicate in the
65

diagnosis of the problems of their areas, in the decision-making and even in the carrying out of the established measures. This is a strategy which comes from the experience in other processes, which points as the key for the success the promotion of the participation in local areas, as nowadays people only get implicated in those things we perceive that affect us directly. Firstly, the show experience focused in the promotion of the encouragement of citizens, organizing events and
Down: meeting of the social participation forum of Micedo marsh (Revilla de Camargo) Right: Celebration of La Cajigonas Day 2010 in Mount Litoral Sierra de Parayas (Maliao).

environmental problems were identified according to the local community. The forum held out weeks later ordered the topics according to the priority. The results were brought out in an edition of a diagnosis guide; the next phase consisted on the creation of Common Interest Groups (CIGs), which we defined as groups of people affected or interested in the same topic, so that it could be analysed and people could propose solutions. These groups of people are united by common problems, which could be the origin of a steady net of organized groups, prepared to face other matters that may appear in the future, collaborating with the construction of a more than desirable participatory culture.

distributing brochures, and then in the implication of the local community in the diagnosis of the marsh, with the purpose of identifying the main points for the inhabitants of the 80 homes and stores around the wetland. 109 interviews were made with this aim, from door to door; then twelve main

66

If you agree Asociacin RIAs objectives and you want to support the continuity of its projects and initiatives you can join our collective by an annual fee of just 25 Euros (20GBP) through our website: www.asociacionria.org

BECOME A MEMBER OF RIA ASSOCIATION

67