Compensación ecológica en la evaluación de impacto ambiental en España: situación y propuestas de acción

Abstract

This article presents an environmental impact assessment (EIA) controversial case, which was finally settled by the passing of a sentence. The sentence enforced a payment to compensate for the economic damage caused to a fish farm through local environmental changes in Urola river estuary, located in the Basque Country. The damage was allegedly caused by a breakwater extension built at the mouth of an estuary nearby the farm, and linked to a recreation port project located within the estuary. While the sentence settled the meaning of compensation from an economic perspective, it raised by contrast some questions on the difficulty of undertaking ecological compensation within EIA practice, using of this particular case. Maybe these difficulties account for the lack of compensation in coastal development projects, which we have observed in a variety of cases in Spain, particularly for coastal development projects.