{"id":6403,"date":"2023-05-31T07:30:09","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T05:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sondainternacional.com\/?post_type=project&p=6403"},"modified":"2024-11-20T08:51:21","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T07:51:21","slug":"spanish-lapland","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/sondainternacional.com\/en\/proyectos\/mega-fires-beyond-extinction\/spanish-lapland\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish Lapland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If we gave a square meter to each human being, the entire population of the planet would fit in an area equivalent to the Community of Madrid.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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There are more than 8 billion people in the world. That figure, divided by the land area (about 150 million square kilometers, excluding aquatic areas), results in just over 53 people per square kilometer.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Are we too many or too few?<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n

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In places like Macao (China) there are more than 20,000 inhabitants per km2<\/sup>; at the opposite extreme, in countries like Mongolia or Australia the average is 2 and 3 inhabitants, respectively. But these numbers are national averages, large-scale data that doesn\u2019t reflect the differences between territories. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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In Spain, the average density is 94 inhabitants per km2<\/sup>. The population of the peninsula is especially concentrated on the coasts and in the large cities on the plateau, and a complex demographic process has been exacerbating this trend for decades.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Not far from the most populated square kilometer of the European Union (which is in the city of Hospitalet de Llobregat, southwest of Barcelona, and home to 50,000 people) is one of the largest demographic deserts in Europe: the Serran\u00eda Celtib\u00e9rica, also known as Southern Lapland or Spanish Lapland due to a similar density of population with the Scandinavian region of the same name.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Map of the Serran\u00eda Celtib\u00e9rica. \u00a9 Jorge Mileto para Sonda Internacional<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Serran\u00eda Celtib\u00e9rica covers the lands of five autonomous communities and ten of their provinces: Burgos, Castell\u00f3n, Cuenca, Guadalajara, La Rioja, Segovia, Soria, Teruel, Valencia and Zaragoza. It extends over 65,489 km2<\/sup>, twice the size of Belgium, and is home to only about 460,000 people in 1,311 municipalities. The average population density is less than 8 inhabitants per km2<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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This essay is a tour through the vast territory of Serran\u00eda Celtib\u00e9rica: a journey in photographs of a territory steeped in history. Always at night, when the absence of light pollution allows us to see what isn\u2019t always visible.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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Town of Castilnuevo, in the province of Guadalajara. Although there are residential homes and a visitor\u2019s house, no one lives permanently in the urban centre of the town. \u00a9 Santi Palacios for Sonda Internacional\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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The term Southern Lapland or Spanish Lapland was coined in 2012, when expert, Pilar Burillo, identified the inter region of the Serran\u00eda Celtib\u00e9rica as a territory with less than 8 inhabitants per km2<\/sup>: the formal indicator used by the European Union to identify “very sparsely populated areas”. Up until then, the only territory identified with this parameter was the Scandinavian region of Lapland, according to Francisco Burillo, professor of Prehistory at the University of Zaragoza and promoter of the Serran\u00eda Celtib\u00e9rica Project<\/a>. Subsequently, this low population density has also been identified in the region known as the Celtic Strip.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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In the image: a constellation of internet satellites, from the company Starlink, seen from a forest burned by Spain\u2019s second largest fire of 2022: it occurred in Bej\u00eds, within the province of Castell\u00f3n, and devastated almost 20,000 hectares.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Sonda Internacional has focused on depopulation within the project ‘Mega Fires: Beyond Extinction’<\/a>, as experts consider rural abandonment as one of the main risk factors for forest fires. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Here the nuance is important: the key is in the abandonment. This leads to a growth in forest mass, mainly in the form of scrub vegetation, which not only acts as fire fuel but dilutes traditional territorial boundaries: like the mosaic landscape in which the mix of croplands, forests, villages and pastures were erected as fire defenses.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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Tobes is an abandoned medieval town within the municipality of Sienes, in the province of Guadalajara. Its last inhabitants left at the beginning of the 1970s. Now there is a project for its restoration.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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The Maranch\u00f3n wind farm, in the province of Guadalajara. Windmills and solar panels are part of the current landscape of the Serran\u00eda Celtib\u00e9rica.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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A train station in the municipality of Aldealpozo, in the province of Soria. It belonged to the Soria-Castej\u00f3n railway line, which was inaugurated in 1941 and in service until 1996. \u00a9 Santi Palacios for Sonda Internacional\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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“The lower the population density, the lower the provision of fundamental public services,” says Pascual Rubio, professor of Geography and Territorial Planning at the University of Zaragoza. The fewer the inhabitants, \u201cthe greater the distance in terms of minutes to access the nearest high-speed rail line, or the nearest motorway or highway. And the endowment of many private services, such as commercial ones, is also normally less.\u201d These deficits limit the quality of life for rural populations and make the territory less attractive as a place of permanent residence.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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Town of Castilnuevo, in the province of Guadalajara. \u00a9 Santi Palacios for Sonda Internacional\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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There are many towns in the Serran\u00eda Celtib\u00e9rica that have become places of second residences. In some cases, it is this which makes it possible for some basic services to be maintained.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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Hay bales stacked in a field near the town of Calderuela, in the province of Soria. \u00a9 Santi Palacios for Sonda Internacional\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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The Serran\u00eda Celtib\u00e9rica has reached this situation only after a decades-long migratory process.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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A rural exodus extended throughout the 20th century, but up until the end of the 1950s, families were sufficiently numerous and prolific enough to compensate the individuals who emigrated, explains Pascual Rubio. This allowed the population to remain reasonably stable or with slight decreases. At the beginning of the 1960s, two fundamental and interrelated processes began in Spain: industrialization and urbanization. Spanish industry was concentrated in the cities, raising the demand for labor in urban environments. And added to this was a process of agricultural mechanization which reduced the demand for labor in the countryside.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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A grave marker still standing within the Santolea cemetary, in Maestrazgo (Teruel). This village was expropriated in 1970 for the creation of the reservoir and dam which bear its name, and which remain standing today. \u00a9 Santi Palacios for Sonda Internacional\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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The average age in 40% of the Serran\u00eda Celtib\u00e9rica municipalities is over 50 years old. “The worst is yet to come,” says Francisco Burillo. As added to the migratory process is the decrease of population due to the deaths of older people who still live in the villages, without generational replacement.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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A forest devastated by flames in March on the border between the provinces of Teruel and Castell\u00f3n, near the municipality of San Agust\u00edn. The fire burned about 4,700 hectares. \u00a9 Santi Palacios for Sonda Internacional\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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There are three elements needed for a fire to start: activation energy (the spark that starts the fire), oxygen and fuel. The first two cannot be controlled: there will always be oxygen and a spark can always jump, either due to natural causes \u2014lightning\u2014 or by human behavior \u2014negligence, accidents or intentional lighting\u2014. This reduces the capacity of action to the third element: fuel or forest mass. Forest management thus becomes the crucial factor in fire prevention.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Once ignited, the behavior of a forest fire is also influenced by three factors, explains M\u00f3nica Parrilla, head of Greenpeace’s Forests campaign: topography, meteorology and, again, fuel. “The lack of dynamization of the rural environment due to a lack of institutional support has led to an increase in the forest area as a result of abandonment,” says Parrilla. What evolves is “an increase in the forest area that is highly vulnerable to fire.”<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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La Toba Reservoir, in the Serran\u00eda de Cuenca Natural Park. \u00a9 Santi Palacios for Sonda Internacional<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t

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