The third in the World Wildlife Day lecture series will take place next Tuesday 20th March at 6:30pm at the Bacarisas Galleries in Casemates. The speaker is Dr Juan Jose Negro, former Director of the Doñana Biological Station.

Dr Negro will talk about Doñana in a lecture entitled “Doñana: The Building of an Icon for Nature Conservation”.

Doñana National Park and surrounding protected areas contain the remains of the marshes of the Guadalquivir River at its estuary with the Atlantic Ocean. A young territory from a geological perspective –only a few thousand years old - has become a legend for conservationists and nature lovers due to its spectacular landscapes and impressive avifauna. Preserved for centuries as a hunting ground for the aristocracy and for being impractical for agriculture or forestry, Doñana emerged as a stronghold for conservation and ecological studies in the mid XXth century thanks to the “Doñana Expeditions”, led by British ornithologists, and hosted by Sherry wine producers – incidentally, the owners of the land.

The Doñana marshes are seasonally flooded by the winter rains, but dry up completely in the long summer. Winter is the season for spotting geese, ducks and waders. The heronries and the bush teem with life in spring... We know of its glorious past, but is there a future for Doñana, already suffering from global warming and besieged by a growing and demanding human population?

The lecture is open to all and is free of charge.