STORY: Growing threat of desertification in Spain due to climate change, intensive farming, says expert
SHOOTING TIME: July 30, 2024
DATELINE: July 31, 2024
LENGTH: 00:02:39
LOCATION: BARCELONA, Spain
CATEGORY: ENVIRONMENT

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the arid and desertified areas in Spain
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Spanish): GABRIEL DEL BARRIO, Researcher from the Spanish National Research Council's Experimental Station of Arid Zones (EEZA)
3. various of the arid and desertified areas in Spain
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (Spanish): GABRIEL DEL BARRIO, Researcher from the Spanish National Research Council's Experimental Station of Arid Zones (EEZA)
5. various of the landscapes in Spain
6. SOUNDBITE 3 (Spanish): GABRIEL DEL BARRIO, Researcher from the Spanish National Research Council's Experimental Station of Arid Zones (EEZA)

STORYLINE:

The threat of desertification in Spain is growing due to climate change and the intensive pressure of land use, a Spanish expert told Xinhua in an interview on Tuesday.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Spanish): GABRIEL DEL BARRIO, Researcher, Spanish National Research Council's Experimental Station of Arid Zones (EEZA)
"The amount of land under active degradation has tripled in just ten years. This will continue to grow because the land is being subjected to very intense use, in order to extract the vegetables and other agricultural products necessary for a socioeconomic dynamic, that is overheating the system."

Nevertheless, the researcher explained that the term "desertification" can be misleading as it suggests that the land affected by the phenomenon could become desert. He insisted that "there will never be a desert in Spain."

The Spanish government has warned that higher temperatures have caused arid climates to double since the mid-20th century, at an annual rate of about 1,500 square kilometers per year.

SOUNDBITE 2 (Spanish): GABRIEL DEL BARRIO, Researcher from the Spanish National Research Council's Experimental Station of Arid Zones (EEZA)
"An increasingly arid climate undermines the resilience of ecosystems and makes it harder for them to recover. At the same time, the effect of climate change increases the intensification of human activity due to the extended search for more water, which has to be extracted from more 'extravagant' places."

Spanish authorities say that 79 percent of the country's water resources are used for agriculture and livestock farming.

The intensification of agricultural land use is the principal cause of land degradation, according to Del Barrio. 

SOUNDBITE 3 (Spanish): GABRIEL DEL BARRIO, Researcher from the Spanish National Research Council's Experimental Station of Arid Zones (EEZA)
"The areas in Spain of intensive agriculture and livestock farming are importing fodder produced in South America, which is at the expense of degrading native forests in regions of the Amazon, so the relationships are becoming increasingly complex."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Barcelona, Spain.
(XHTV)