La Charca de Suárez in Motril will become a Special Protection Area for Birds

The most important wetland on the Granada coast, the Charca de Suárez, in Motril, will have a new protection status. The Governing Council of the Junta de Andalucía has approved the decree declaring it a Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA) and approving its Management Plan, according to the Junta.

The declaration establishes measures to prevent the deterioration of habitats and disturbances that may affect protected species, with special attention to birds. The aim is to guarantee their survival, rest and reproduction and to maintain the wetland's natural conditions. The Management Plan will be valid indefinitely, although it may be modified and reviewed under the terms set out in the instrument itself. The site is integrated into the European Ecological Network Natura 2000 and is included in the Inventory of Protected Natural Areas of Andalusia. The regulation will enter into force the day after its publication in the Boletín Oficial de la Junta de Andalucía (BOJA).

The Charca de Suárez is one of the few groups of coastal freshwater lagoons in Andalusia. Its location between the wetlands of western Almería and those of Málaga makes it a place for nesting, wintering and resting for numerous migratory species. Among the birds present are the red-knobbed coot, the ferruginous duck, the marbled teal, the squacco heron and the Eurasian bittern, as well as the greater flamingo, the mallard, the grey heron, the little egret and birds of prey such as the western marsh harrier. The presence of species included in Annex I of the European Birds Directive justifies this new protection status. The wetland is made up of eight permanent-water lagoons in the Motril-Salobreña plain, fed by the aquifer of the same name and by irrigation return flows. In 2007, five of them (las Aneas, el Trébol, el Taraje, el Lirio and la Caña de Azúcar) were added to the Inventory of Wetlands of Andalusia and in 2009 they were declared a Concerted Nature Reserve. The other three, la Juncia, el Junco and el Álamo Blanco, are on land ceded to the Motril City Council in 2012.

The Motril City Council has shown its interest in expanding the Concerted Nature Reserve to incorporate the adjoining land where the three lagoons that remain outside that status are located. Both administrations maintain a protection agreement in the reserve, signed in December 2021 and extended in December 2025 for another four years. Administration and management will correspond to the Junta de Andalucía, through the ministry responsible for the environment, with the assistance of the Provincial Council for the Environment and Biodiversity of Granada.