Teresa Vicente, Advocacy for Mar Menor
In order to preserve the Mar Menor, Teresa Vicente collected 500,000 signatures. He started tossing and turning with the police.
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Teresa Vicente
Teresa Vicente (61) led a campaign to save Mar Menor which is the largest lagoon in Europe. The preservation of this ecosystem is fought for by grassroots movements. He succeeded in convincing policy makers to guarantee legal certainty that protects biodiversity.
The most important lagoon in the Western Mediterranean is polluted by mining, city development, and rampant tourism infrastructure, coupled with the recent growth of livestock and agriculture. Mar Menor, which means small sea with water that resembles turquoise.
The flora and fauna of the habitat were previously an ecological treasure trove of the Mediterranean. Mar Menor, located in Spain exudes charm so that it not only attracts tourists to flock to visit it, but also a number of investors.
The screams of the Mar Menor urged me to act. I then developed steps to care for it.
Around the tourism destinations, the agricultural industry is aggressively replacing traditional farming. Companies are sending most of their commodities for export. This dynamic has been ongoing since the 1950s decade.
Separated from the sea by a sandbank stretching 8.5 miles (16 kilometers), Mar Menor is admired for its crystal-clear waters, rare animals, and its unique fish. The tranquility of the 52-square-mile (96 km) lagoon began to be disrupted in the 1970s.
"Mar Menor is considered not only a source of profit but also a waste disposal site," said Vicente, as quoted from the official Goldman Prize website. In 2019, a severe storm released chemical fertilizers that flooded the lagoon. The proliferation of algae then exploded.
The plants consumed all the available oxygen, strangling millions of fish. The massive deaths urged Vicente to raise the alarm. "Mar Menor's cries urged me to take action. I then planned steps to take care of it," he said.
Teresa Vicente delivered her statement at a press conference in Murcia, Spain.
The law professor University of Murcia, Spain, is very interested in the environment and has made it his specialization. He has been working on ecological law since 1986. Vicente considers the implementation of human rights to be unreasonable without accompanying nature conservation.
If the idea is implemented, Mar Menor will have equal rights to human protection because it has the power to go to court. Vicente is promoting a new approach based on the constitution that allows citizens to directly submit draft regulations to parliament.
Cat and mouse
Vicente and sympathetic members of the community then held a protest. He also socialized his plans to various communities and worked with hundreds of thousands of volunteers in Spain. In the fall of 2020, the first draft of the regulation was submitted to parliament.
When the campaign started, people thought I was crazy, but gradually they joined in.
In order to obtain approval, Vicente must collect 500,000 signatures from citizens. Despite the raging pandemic, he insists on not delaying his struggle. A table, paper, and pen are provided. People passing by are invited to sign their signature.
Vicente also shouted while embracing a stack of posters. Occasionally playing cat and mouse with the police was inevitable, but he never ran out of energy to spread his persuasion and encourage residents to become volunteers.
Vicente's actions have garnered sympathy from 185 environmental, cultural, and tourism organizations in Spain. Initially, he was often ignored. "When the campaign started, people thought I was crazy, but gradually they joined," he said.
Teresa Vicente (center) chats with several colleagues at the University of Murcia, Spain.
He was under pressure with only two months left when 200,000 signatures were still needed in August 2021. Blessings behind the disaster in Mar Menor. "Once again, fish and mollusks are stranded and dying. They seem to be accusing humans who do not leave enough oxygen to breathe," he said.
The disaster sparked a wave of protests from around 70,000 people who held hands and applauded along the shores of Mar Menor. "They declared themselves as a lagoon on the verge of destruction. Afterwards, I travelled around Madrid (the capital of Spain) happily," he said.
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Vicente shouted with the car window open. It turned out that he had already collected 640,000 signatures that opened the door to realizing his dream. The historic campaign finally resulted in a regulation that was officially inaugurated in September 2022.
The parliament has majority agreed to Vicente's wish. He and his friends cheered as they heard the first decision in Europe to cover Mar Menor as if protecting humans. The lagoon is then saved from dangerous disturbances.
The Spanish government also guarantees the recovery of Mar Menor. Intensive agriculture is still ongoing, as well as construction that never seems to end, but Vicente along with the public has built a shield to prevent damage to the lagoon.
Vicente's struggle has become an important milestone for environmental protection and natural rights in various parts of the world. "It is a vision of hope for all life on Earth. I think Mar Menor is very proud of all the efforts that have been made," he said with a smile.
Farmland not far from the Mar Menor lagoon in Murcia, Spain.
Vicente was also awarded the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize because of his achievements. The annual award, presented in San Francisco, United States, since 1990, is given to environmental leaders with significant actions towards the Earth.
Without getting paid
Vicente was born and raised in Murcia, coinciding with the growing concern for Mar Menor, where the lagoon stretches across the same region. He has dedicated his entire career to studying and advocating for the environment, even completing his thesis on the subject of ecological justice.
The Director of the Chair of Human Rights and Rights of Nature at the University of Murcia did not expect any reward when defending Mar Menor by working without pay. Lobbying with local, regional, and even central government officials was not left out in the attempt.
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A supervisory body has also been formed consisting of government representatives, scientists, and citizens. Vicente even earned a scholarship at the University of Reading, Berkshire, England, in 2019. He delved into the success of legal manifestations in the world to protect nature.
Upon returning to the University of Murcia, he immediately began studying with his students to pursue the method. Publications were launched through newspaper articles to use a popular legislative initiative that allows citizens to propose regulations to parliament.
A public meeting was held by Vicente in July 2020, followed by the drafting of regulations jointly with seven colleagues. Initially, many experts believed that environmental rights were impossible to implement in Europe, but the Deputy Director of the Center for Cooperation and Development Studies at the University of Murcia pushed forward regardless.
Teresa Vicente
Born: Murcia, Spain
Work:
> Professor of Law, University of Murcia, Spain
> Director of the Chair of Human Rights and Rights of Nature, University of Murcia, Spain
> Deputy Director of the Center for Cooperation and Study Development, University of Murcia, Spain
