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A victory for the birds

Dale Fuchs

Madrid: In the battle between developers and dwindling natural habitats in Spain, concrete blocks of holiday homes have usually won. But in the cliffs of Jaen, two endangered eagles have scored a small victory for the environment.

The Bonelli's eagles, among 600 pairs left in Spain and 1,100 in the world, had built their nest on a rocky outcrop outside the Andalucian city — apparently without realising they would one day have a neighbour with a pink-and-white home in a valley below.

Local environmental groups filed a complaint against the construction and, in an unusual verdict for a country that builds more than half a million new homes each year, a judge ruled in favour of the birds.

Jaen magistrate Jose Maria Caoada ordered the owner and builder to tear down the house because it "bothers a species with low tolerance for the human presence and which deserves special protection," El Mundo newspaper reported on Monday. The judge also cited the danger posed by access roads to the house, which could "facilitate the labour of possible predators of the birds and their eggs."

Local environmental groups say it is the country's first ruling in which concern for wildlife has prevailed over the rights of homeowners or the economic interests of builders. They hope it will eventually extend to another 50 homes built on protected land where a family of royal eagles also nest.

The Jaen ruling reflects a slowly growing awareness of the downside of unchecked development as forests and farmland turn into sprawling suburbs, gobbling up nesting grounds and turning endangered species, such as the Iberian lynx, into victims of highway hit-and-runs. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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