StopAgroparc Manifest 2023, in Catalan PDF StopAgroparc Manifest 2023, in Spanish PDF StopAgroparc Manifest 2023, in English PDF
WHY WE SAY NO TO THE AGROPARC PENEDÈS OF THE AMETLLER ORIGEN GROUP
Gelida, 24 April 2023
In October 2021, together with the Gelida Town Council, the Ametller Group presented its new project “Agroparc Penedès” in this municipality [1].
It was a reformulation and expansion of the project that was already presented in 2017, against which we had already raised our voices due to the negative consequences it could have for our territory. At that time, it was put on hold because Ametller did not have industrial land to implement all its activities. With the acquisition of Can Joncoses - agricultural land reclassified as developable land, but never developed - the project doubles, increasing from 121 ha to 258 ha.
With the new project initially approved by the Town Council in December 2022 [2], the area increases to 322 ha, with greenhouses occupying 21 ha and the industrial estate 23 ha.
Although the Agroparc is intended to be presented as a “closed-loop”, virtuous and complete project, the reality is that it will involve the twisted application of territorial planning regulations to achieve the simultaneous implementation of a processing factory, a photovoltaic park, farms, and intensive greenhouse crops on protected dry vineyard land, among other things. From StopAgroparc we reaffirm our opposition and clearly state that NO.
Among other reasons, we find the following ESSENTIAL POINTS:
1. There is a desire to apply the current territorial planning in a biased manner.
The implementation of the Agroparc requires an abusive interpretation of article 1.14 of the Metropolitan Territorial Plan of Barcelona (PTMB), which allows for territorial interest actions that are not foreseen. This interpretation opens the door to the transformation of the landscape and the productive system of the territory through the establishment of intensive agriculture and various facilities that require significant amounts of space, energy, and water.
This will end the consensus on the preservation of the economy, biodiversity, landscape, and identity that the PTMB provides to our territory.
2. It will not engage in either organic farming or agriculture that is coherent with its environment..
The crops of the Agroparc will confront biodynamic and organic farming lands, and small crops that integrate into the territory and form the traditional agriculture of our region. In fact, it should be noted that it is part of the objectives approved by the strategic plan of the DO Penedès, the commitment that from the 2025 harvest, 100% of the wine produced in this DO will be organic.
In this sense, although Ametller claims that it will produce in a "sustainable" and "respectful" manner with the environment, its foods do not have any certification that offers guarantees about the idea that is intended to be conveyed to consumers and citizens in general.
3. It breaks the ecological connector between protected natural spaces listed in the PEIN (Roques Blanques and Montserrat and the Ordal Mountains).
The area projected for the Agroparc, which borders the Anoia River, is located within the ecological connector defined by the territorial planning between the natural interest spaces of Roques Blanques and Montserrat up to the Muntanyes de l’Ordal. Ecological connectors are established, according to the regulations, “to maximise ecological permeability between areas of natural interest.” Since the Agroparc will involve an over-intensive use of the space, both at an agricultural and industrial and logistical level, it does not meet current needs regarding biodiversity and is not coherent with territorial planning.
4. It does not respect the hunting area of the Bonelli's Eagle and threatens the habitat of other species.
It will put the Bonelli's Eagle at risk, a protected species that is threatened and in worrying decline. The Eagle finds in the delimited space, including the developable land of Can Joncoses, a preferred hunting area close to the breeding area identified in Gelida. Indeed, among the factors threatening the species are urban development and infrastructure increase and the abandonment of extensive agriculture (which leads to the loss of territorial quality, reduction of prey or excessive perturbations).
Likewise, the area projected for the Agroparc serves as habitat and/or a transit zone for more than eighty other protected species, most of which have also experienced a serious decline in recent years due to various factors.
5. It implements
greenhouses and irrigated crops in an agricultural
area of
dry land.
In the context of the Agroparc, the construction of 21 hectares of "technified greenhouses" on non-urbanisable land is proposed, claiming that they will have a digitalised system that will allow for greater efficiency in production. The reality, however, is that this system of intensive agricultural production will require more energy and a greater amount of water resources than traditional (and sustainable) dryland agriculture - such as vineyards - in addition to the other negative consequences that this type of building may have on the natural environment where they are intended to be implemented.
6. Implementation of photovoltaic panels on agricultural land.
The installation of solar panels is presented as a revolutionary and harmless novelty, but both the extent and location of the panels make their implementation ecologically unviable. Furthermore, it is important to consider the opposition and social movement that has emerged in recent months against solar power plants on agricultural land.
7. It does not optimise the existing industrial land and will create an unnecessary new industrial zone.
Although the land of Can Joncoses was reclassified from agricultural to developable, it has never ceased to be a space of ecological value and, despite the idea that is intended to be extended, it is not barren or abandoned land. The ecological corridor of the Torrent de Can Joncoses runs through the area of Can Joncoses, and all the species of fauna mentioned earlier can be found there. In fact, the municipal group now leading the local government of Gelida stated in its electoral programme in 2019 that industry should goto the existing industrial estates where we have plenty of available space, without damaging Can Joncoses.This position seems to have disappeared since the last elections were won.
Regardless of the natural value of the area, we must ask ourselves: is it necessary to build more industrial warehouses when, in Gelida itself, we have warehouses built with a level of occupancy that is zero or insufficient? It makes no sense to build an industrial area when we have empty warehouses and unused industrial estates throughout the country and the region (in Penedès, we have more than 200 hectares of constructed and unoccupied industrial estates).
8. Industrial activity increases by 77% compared to the current POUM.
According to data from the Ametller project itself, currently, the land for activity in the Can Juncoses area is 13 hectares; however, in their new proposal Agroparc, under the pretext of preserving special vineyard land and land of natural value (such as the ecological connector of the Can Juncoses stream), they increase this activity land by 77%, up to 23 hectares.
Thus moving from a compact industrial estate to three segregated activity areas that extend from the Claro spring to beyond the AVE bridge and that will necessarily need to be interconnected.
9. It represents a significant landscape and environmental impact.
Gelida is the gateway to the Alt Penedès, its agroforestry and wine mosaic constitutes an environmentally preserved border to the south of the metropolitan region. However, the establishment of an AgriTech landscape, linked to an industrial estate and managed like a theme park, blurs the limits of industrial activity that have so far been confined to the estates. By dispersing the inputs of matter, energy, and waste related to an industrial and tourist activity of this magnitude into the agricultural landscape, a decisive change in landscape management is introduced. The confluence of the Can Juncoses estate with the new facilities of the agricultural park linked to it will create the need for electrical, water, and internal communication networks, with associated consequences such as noise pollution, light pollution, and that produced by waste.
Thus, the face, identity, character, and agroecological relationships in a vulnerable, valuable, and finite territory are compromised.
10. It entails a strong pressure of mobility and human activity on the territory.
Regarding the mobility generated by the Agroparc project, it should be noted that, on the one hand, a flow of about 90,000 visitors per year (equivalent to 250 visitors per day) and 1,000 workers is expected, and on the other hand, the magnitude and scope of the project will entail motorised mobility of goods, both for raw materials and for packaging, processed products, and waste. The daily volume of heavy vehicles will undoubtedly be very considerable. The intensification of mobility in the area will result in an environmental pressure that will be evidently negative and perceptible both directly and indirectly, with a single access road, the BV-2249, which cannot absorb such a significant flow of vehicles and which also passes through a populated area.
11. No it is a closed-loop system.
Although the Agroparc is promoted as a completely sustainable and closed-loop project, there are several factors that indicate that this will not be a reality. It is necessary to contextualise and remember the scope of the Ametller activity. In order to produce everything that is proposed within the Agroparc, a huge amount of products from other places will need to be brought in, and, among other things, a much larger amount of water will be required than the territory can support - let us also remember the implementation of irrigated crops on dry land. In this context of climate emergency, it is not coherent to develop and execute this type of methodologies.
12. It aims to simulate a model of local production and trade and it harms it.
Ultimately, the Agroparc is developed on the business basis of a model of vertical integration of sustained growth, not sustainable, which distorts the value of proximity and cannot be sustained without externalities, despite being presented as a closed-loop activity and under the guise of zero-kilometre farming.
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1 Project: “Advance of planning for the implementation of a PROJECT OF TERRITORIAL INTEREST. In the areas of CAN JONCOSES-LA TALAIA, CAN MATA D’ABELLÓ AND CAN FONT DE L’ALZINAR” (Date: 2021.09.20)
2 You can consult all the documents of the Modification of the POUM of Gelida on this url: https://stopagroparc.cat/mpoum-gelida-2022