Percepción de un espacio natural protegido en los municipios de su entorno: el caso de El Hondo de Elche

Abstract

El Hondo Natural Park is located in the Alicante province (SE Spain), in a depression in the land, former gulf clogged by sedimentation of both rivers (Vinalopó and Segura). The area is a marshy vast territory that aroused historically the surrounding populations’ interest by the drainage, cleaning up and cultivation. This process has reached until the twentieth century. In the first half of this century, as a result of the creation of irrigation reservoirs, a permanent wetland was established, and more recently, in 1994, it has been recognized as a Natural Park, by its ecological importance. Since then, several conflicts of interests have emerged between irrigators and Environmental Administration by the use of the water.