Alba and Guille found in the fusion of their worlds the key to their environmental dissemination project, “Leyendo el Monte” (@leyendoelmonte), which has accumulated more than 40,000 followers on Instagram and YouTube since January. Alba (Fuenlabrada, 1999), trained in forest management, and Guille (Leganés, 1993), from a social perspective, began photographing and cataloguing plants: “I liked going home and identifying them to archive them; it was like making a technical sheet. Guille began to learn photography and little by little we started making videos, but [el propósito era] teach us; it’s almost like catching a Pokémon. Without falling into academic solemnity, the didacticism of its format makes that, from a biology student to a child watching reels At three in the morning, everyone will understand and assimilate the message perfectly. Something that is very complicated given the trend of the current Internet in which the consumption of short-term content and the need for constant stimuli prevails.
Another of the characteristics that define the social networks of this decade is the multitude of disinformation and post-truth that flood the comment boxes, forums and, in general, all the spaces in which someone can express their opinion, so many times. disseminators also end up fighting against these messages.
Alba and Guille, however, told elDiario.es of the Region that, in their case, they have not had many problems: “We do not say ambiguous things and we see a good reception. What we see is that a debate is generated, and we like that; Sometimes you see in the comments that a super environmentalist and a hunter agree on something and that’s really cool. For example, when we wanted to talk about salmon fishing, we made it very clear that we wanted to address both sides, because neither the most purist environmentalist is right, nor the fishermen. Fishermen have a function in the river, just like ranchers in the mountains; There are two aspects that must coexist: the conservation of species and the activities [del sector primario]. Today, it is domestic livestock that is replacing the large herbivores that once existed. We must try to reconcile these groups through appropriate management; “I met a ranger in Asturias who told me that he knew he was doing his job well when environmentalists and ranchers complained to him.”
“A lot of waste” in a “very dead” sea
The “Reading the Mountain” project went to the Region of Murcia a few months ago to prepare a report on the state of the Mar Menor divided into several themes. Alba says that at first: “I imagined it would be worse. Probably because when we went there, it wasn’t really very exciting; but how I imagined the Mar Menor, how I imagined a salty lagoon, this piece of ecosystem… it seemed desolate, deserted; it seemed very dead to me. It didn’t smell bad and I didn’t see any dirt in the water as such, which might come to mind when we think of the Mar Menor, but we certainly didn’t see the richness that a lagoon like that should have either.”
“The diving was already apocalyptic, horrible, devastating. “Very, very bad.” For comparison, Alba and Guille also dove in the Mediterranean, in Cabo de Palos, ranked among the best places in the world to practice diving. “In Cabo de Palos, there was enormous clarity, you could see everything and a lot of biodiversity, in terms of fauna, but also algae, plants and sponges, stars, anemones. You would stop anywhere and see a ton of things. And in the Mar Menor, the truth is that I enjoyed it in the sense that it was like walking through an apocalyptic landscape. I didn’t imagine something like that. I imagined, well, I don’t know, maybe something different from the Mediterranean Sea, not so rich, but I didn’t think that we wouldn’t see anything. At one point, we turned around and got lost; we didn’t see each other anymore. We had to surface. You could see a few small fish surviving there that gave a little something, poor thing, and there was also a lot of waste. We left feeling like we had to take a shower and that we were going to get infections.
In one of your interviews you mentioned the problem with the Cala Reona emissary.
The outfall is an underwater pipe that discharges sewage into the sea. They told us that sometimes excrement seemed to float in the water, but I think the problem does not end there, because the only thing that changes with the rupture of the outfall is that the sewage rises to the surface, that is why the cry rises… into the sky, instead of taking it thirty meters deep, but these discharges were going to end up in the sea anyway. But of course, Oh, what a drama, now we, the bathers, see it! It is a problem of water purification, which is not enough.
In this book, you discuss the importance of body awareness when practicing sports like diving.
It is a diving school concept [La Perla Negra Dive]since the children who wear it are very involved in marine conservation. They say that an important part of diving must be body awareness. When you suddenly enter another ecosystem, such as the aquatic environment, you have to learn to control your body, to move. Also in the mountains. You have to learn not to make noise, to speak more quietly, to go more slowly. I think it is very necessary, especially for diving in such delicate areas, because when you are there, you realize that by flapping your wings a little you disturb a lot of things, you move the earth and, suddenly, as everything slows down, the whole movement seems much more scandalous.
This happens with nature sports, like hiking or climbing, which serve to raise awareness, but also to leave a mark.
It is a complex question, because before the use of the forest was different; before, people lived in the city, the primary sector was more active, people had their livestock… So this form of leisure is a good way to ensure that the mountains are not abandoned, because people who live in the city also want to enjoy them.
The problem is when [el trekking o la escalada, por ejemplo] They are considered only as a sport and not as an interaction with the environment. Knowing that if there is a bird’s nest on a wall you cannot climb it, or the question of feeding the wildlife.
That is why I believe that there needs to be a lot of dissemination in this area so that people, in addition to doing sports, enjoy the mountain; and that it is also invested. The mountain can accommodate more people, but as long as the paths are respected so as not to crush the flora, certain guidelines are respected. We believe that people must respect the environment and understand it, but to want to do it: that people are aware of where they are going and value the environment.
Between the Mar Menor and the Mediterranean, what differences have you noticed in environmental management?
From what we learned there from the people interviewed, the Mediterranean Sea has gained a lot. Diving was a disaster at the time, but it has gained a lot because taxes were imposed on divers and this money is invested in maintaining the ecosystem in which they operate. There is also a protected fishing area where you can’t dive, you can’t do anything. The divers have understood this and it is done well and good management is carried out because there is a lot of activity. There is a lot of economy around it, but it does not affect the ecosystem, it can even benefit it from the investment that is made. And in the Mar Menor? I couldn’t tell you when the breakdown occurred, but the management has been terrible.
Do you think the rates are positive or do they only put a price on pollution?
It depends on how that money is managed and the price you set, because as we have said before, it is true that the mountain can accommodate more people, but as long as more is invested in its maintenance, in repairing the disasters that people can do. So, we understand that if a reasonable rate is set, it is not spending 50 dollars to do a route, it is not elitist, accessible to everyone, but it is money redirected to the ecosystem, yes.
Ultimately, the damage that you do, by doing this activity, by making this journey, is multiplied by thousands of people, so if the money is allocated to a management plan and to good management, it seems viable to me. In other words, it seems viable to me given the panorama that we have because otherwise what we will have is a very destroyed mountain that will be able to accommodate people for ten years and that’s it.
That’s where we think the most important thing is outreach, because you can tell someone, “Hey, you can’t get out of the way,” or you can say, “Hey, listen, I’m going to show you this plant that only grows in this area; it grows here. That’s why we made this path so they don’t step on each other. And it’s super fragile and it feeds this pollinator. And people love it and respect it. People don’t do bad things with bad intentions, but if you tell them not to do something and you don’t explain why, it’s more complicated. Also, people who go to the mountains are people who are eager to learn and enjoy the route that they’re going to take. The only thing that’s missing is someone who can give you more information.
