The historical irrigation systems were declared Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in December 2023. Spain is not included in that declaration despite the importance of our historical irrigation systems, not only in the peninsular Levant, but throughout the territory, including the islands or wetter areas such as Galicia. Although the Water Court of Valencia and the Good Men of Huerta de Murcia have been UNESCO intangible heritage since 2009, Spain did not participate in that process and Spanish irrigation is not included in that declaration, which was curiously promoted by Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy, places where one would not expect a priori that irrigation existed nor that they were given that importance. However, this is the case, the wealth and extent of these traditional irrigation systems in these countries is not at all comparable to that of Spain, but there they are recognized and protected and, in many cases, restored and maintained as part of an important heritage.
In 2024, the possibility arose of making a joint candidacy to request accession to the UNESCO declaration by France, Spain, Greece and Portugal. Curiously, the initiative came from the French Government and researchers from the Sorbonne University. The proposal was welcomed by the Ministry of Culture after receiving the request from some autonomous communities that, in turn, responded to the demand of the communities of historical and traditional irrigators grouped in associations in Andalusia and Extremadura.
Behind it there is all previous research work and work with the communities by the MEMOLab, biocultural archeology laboratory of the University of Granada, but also by other researchers from this same institution and from the universities of Almería, the Polytechnic of Valencia, the Autonomous University of Madrid or the CSIC, particularly the hydrogeologists from the IGME and the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture.
The cultural, environmental, productive or social values of the irrigation communities and the traditional water and irrigation management systems, as well as the ecosystem services they provide us, have been collected in an argument (attached) prepared in their defense and in more and more scientific results and publications. From a multifunctional and integrated perspective, these systems represent examples of innovation, sustainability, resilience and participatory governance from which we should learn in the current context of environmental crisis and global change. This is recognized, for example, by a part of the Ministry of Ecological Transition itself and the Biodiversity Foundation that depends on it.
And yet, these systems are under enormous pressure coming not only from the generalized crisis in the rural world, but particularly from the processes and policies of irrigation technology. These processes and policies involve agricultural intensification and industrialization that is having devastating consequences, both for the rural world itself, which has become a sacrificial zone for the extraction of raw materials and energy, and for the environment. It is only necessary to remember examples such as Doñana, the Mar Menor or the Tablas de Daimiel, but it would be extended to many other areas.
The process carried out with the Ministry of Culture for the recognition of historical and traditional irrigation was already very advanced. The first step, in addition to joining the international candidacy, was the registration of the historic irrigation sites on the list of the Representative Manifestations of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Spain (MRPCI). Registration as MRPCI had already been initiated after the preparation of the technical report (carried out by the MEMOLab UGR), its external review and publication in the BOE.
All the autonomous communities had given their approval and the carrier communities, the irrigation communities, their consent with a broad representation of practically all parts of Spain. During the period of allegations, many have been presented by different actors and reasons. We have not been able to see them directly, but they have told us that there are inquiries or requests from communities that specifically want to join and be recognized; There are issues related to powers, decentralized in the case of Culture and centralized in the case of Water; There are also allegations regarding the compatibility of the protection of elements such as weirs, diversion dams of many traditional irrigation systems, and the European Directive on river continuity and the ecological restoration of rivers. We have not fully understood the seriousness of these allegations, but it is clear that the contradictions between the conservation of historical irrigation and hydraulic, agrarian and some environmental policies have burst the seams. There must have been no small amount of pressure for the Ministry to make the decision to paralyze and abandon the proposal for recognition as intangible heritage at such an advanced point in the process, especially the request for adhesion to the UNESCO Declaration, which was finally made with France, Austria and Greece and in coordination with the rest of the countries that are already part of this declaration.
The decision is a blow to the irrigation communities, which had massively expressed their support for recognition and had demanded it as a way to protect themselves from the enormous pressures they receive for their extinction or their radical transformation into technical industrial systems. But the decision is also a hard blow for the systems of protection and stewardship of cultural heritage, which have succumbed to the pressures of other interests and other policies, leaving the meaning of heritage regulations and their effectiveness wounded.
From the academic field and from the irrigation communities we express our gratitude to the technicians who from the ministry have carried out the process demonstrating not only their professionalism, but also their vocation, but we want to draw attention to the political responsibility, not only for abandoning an international procedure and the commitments acquired, but above all for abandoning the irrigation communities, the “bearer communities”, which are the basis of intangible heritage protection and for emptying the heritage legislation of content by subjecting it to the designs of other interests and visions that threaten our Culture.
The Ministry should reflect and correct this error that further deepens the social and recognition crisis of our rural environment and agricultural culture, which is Culture with capital letters. They should think about the role of heritage and protection systems in the defense of the territory, of local communities. We recognize that it is a brave bet, but necessary in the current context of environmental crisis and Global Change.
