The project RESALAR what seeks the recovery of the Marchamalo Salt Flatslocated in the Region of Murcia, more precisely on the edge of the Mar Menor, in Cartagena, is bearing its first fruits after more than three decades of abandonment.
The Marchamalo salt flats (Mar Menor, Cartagena, Region of Murcia) have shown since last week a small mountain that accumulates about 1,000 tons of salt obtained within the framework of the Project Resalarand that are the result of work restoration of the eastern area of these small salt flatswhich were abandoned in the mid-90s of the last century.
The recovery of salt mining activity in the Marchamalo Salt Flats took its first steps in 2019, following the purchase by the ANSE Foundation of the concession for the eastern part of the salt flats and a land with a ruined warehouse in the upper part. south of the space, to which the old carpentry warehouses and other annexed lands were later added, which have been completely restored and next to which conditioning a threshing floor for salt storage.
Some salt flats that prosper
Although there is still much work to be done, the partial restoration carried out since spring 2023 has allowed the extraction of a part of the salt harvest from two crystallizing ponds of the old salt complexwhile another part has been used to adapt the floors or floors of some of them.
During these days, and after the collection of the salt harvest, several machines and laser tractors have worked on the extraction of sludge, re-profiling and strengthening the floors of crystallizing ponds to facilitate the collection of next year’s harvest and improve the quality of salt for human consumption.
The Association has had to solve multiple procedures and authorizations before the three levels of administration (City Council of Cartagena, Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia and State), and will have to wait for the resolves the definitive concession of the General Directorate of Coasts.
It is still early for the commercialization of salt, since land and sludge accumulated in more than half of the salt complex must still be extracted, but the 2024 harvest has shown that the association would be capable of recover salt mining activity and infrastructure such as historic warehousesrestoring hope to an environment that seemed condemned to the same future as so many other salt mines that have disappeared around the Mar Menor: La Veneciola (La Manga), Lo Poyo and La Hita (Los Alcázares).
The association considers that the harvest of salt obtained, and the great reception among neighbors and visitors who during this summer have been able to visit the salt flats and learn about the project, show that The future of the Marchamalo wetland inevitably involves the recovery and maintenance of salt production in all of the salt flats, which would contribute to improving diversity, generating employment and providing complementary activities to sun and beach tourism in the Mar Menor.
He RESALAR project has the objective of regenerating spaces on the Mar Menor coastline and his biodiversity to strengthen the resilience of the coastline against climate change and improve and increase the ecosystem services they provide to society.
This project, coordinated by the ANSE Foundation, and in which the Association of Southeastern Naturalists, WWF-Spain and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, National Center of the State Agency Higher Council for Scientific Research (IEO-CSIC) participate, has the support of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), which provides 95% of the financing of the project, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), financed by the Union European – NextGenerationEU.
In addition, it is linked to the Framework of Priority Actions for the recovery of the Mar Menor of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. The project is co-financed by the Estrella de Levante Foundation and with the collaboration of Salinera Española and Biocyma.
The Marchamalo salt flats constitute a privileged area of the wetland that made up La Manga del Mar Menor and of which only vestiges remain, which, thanks to the association, are trying to recover so that they can produce again.