Case Study 1: Matarraña River Basin - Euwareness

ut was marginal. At the beginning of the nineties, the European Union gave incentives
to the arrangement of rural houses in order to avoid their abandonment as well as to
stop rural exodus, by trying to make tourism an alternative to social and economic
development in the area. In that period, some social and private initiatives promoting
rural tourism were launched. Some of the initiatives promoted include the conversion of
old places —for instance a medieval tower, a mill, an old train station, an old factory or
a monastery— in rural hotels or restaurants. In recent years, local governments in the
higher river basin are having some initiatives to promote tourism.
Tourism is higher in the summer time (July and August) and leads to an increase of
water demands. For instance, in Valderrobres, which is the municipality where tourism
is most developed in the Matarraña river basin, water demands for population supply
are estimated to increase about 50%.
Living environment
The Matarraña river is considered to be one of the Mediterranean rivers with one of the
most salient biodiversity and is probably one of the best conserved in the Iberian
Peninsula. There are 312 species of algae, 202 species of aquatic invertebrates and
186 species of vertebrates (Sostoa, 1996). Some parts of the Matarraña river receive a
special protection by virtue of the 78/659 Directive on the diversity of fish species, and
some of them are protected by the Habitats directive (92/43). In the framework of the
latter, most part of the river has been proposed as a place of Community interest (LIC)
by the Aragon regional government to the State government, which in turn will make
the national proposal to the European Commission.
The Matarraña river is the living environment of some Mediterranean species in danger
of extinction: the river crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes), which is considered a
species of community interest; the ‘monk’ fish (Blennius fluviatilis), which is considered
a species in danger of extinction by the Bern Convention; the ‘bagre’ cephalopods
(Leuciscus cephalus), the European galapagus (Emys orbicularis), and the otter (Lutra
lutra), are considered as “vulnerable” (Sostoa, 1996).
Territorial conflict between the high basin territories (the region of Valderrobres), where
the river constitutes a key element of the natural heritage —which is the basis of rural
tourism in the area—, and the middle-low basin (the region of Maella), the main
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