Why Spain is turning into a desert 

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I can't say this enough - don't reforest with eucalyptus unless you're in Australia. Its a plant suited to our landscape and culture - however its also extremely fire prone and can be part of intense fire activity. Spain needs to return to planting its own nature trees for resforestation.

Being from Portugal I can definitely tell that we are going in the same way. Tropical fruits are being mass farmed in the Algarve, the driest area in Portugal. Every year we have water shortages. In Alentejo, mainly in Odemira region there's thousand's of hectares for industrial farming and greenhouses, which is again, for tropical fruits such avacados and all type of berries. Most of it is exported to northern and Central Europe. Town's are running out of water but this farms and also golf courses are always green. Another aspect of this is illegal immigration and slavery due to the need for cheap labor. I personally met s group of nepalis that weren't paid for 4 months. Something that I should add to this is that, in the latest summers Portugal's rivers that crossed the border were significant drier, since was alleged that the Spanish government would kept more water in their dams.

Spain is the Orchard of Europe, Ukraine is the Breadbasket .

As a barren wasteland myself, Spain's issue really speaks to me

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children" You guys are always cooking with the hard hitting quotes

as an Australian who’s job is to plant native trees, DONT PLANT EUCALYPTUS TREES. sure there drought and fire resistant, but at what cost. they’ve evolved to burn and these fires can be intense without regular burns and proper land management (look up black summer of 2019 for an example). also they’re incredibly fast growing and invasive to non native areas. they also drop large branches unpredictably making them dangerous. Don’t plant these outside of Australia.

Great video overall, however I'd like to point out a couple of things: First, deforestation during the 15th and 16th centuries was driven by agricultural expansion rather than shipbuilding. Galleon construction required indeed a lot of wood but it also required that supply to be sustainable during a long time (as fleets had to be replenished, repaired, upgraded and expanded). Spanish shipbuilders knew this and relied on silviculture rather than mindlessly clearing forests for logging, overexplotaition of forests was rare. Also, only minor and auxiliary vessels were actually built in Spain using spanish wood, most of the larger warships were built in the Caribbean using native resources. This coincided in time with a growth on spanish population and a significant expansion of agriculture. Most forests were cleared so the land could be used for crop production or cattle grazing. Second, "reforestation" during Franco's dictatorship is a more complicated topic than it appears in the video. Non-native species of trees were introduced for either pulp and paper production (mainly on the mediteranean coast), or to create "dehesas" for recreational use or cattle grazing (mainly in the interior of the peninsula). Main problem is the species used (besides having no ecological continuity) consume much higher amounts of water than native trees, leading to dessecation and soil degradation. This causes the local ecosystems to degrade and destabilize (often to the point of collapse) and sets up the perfect conditions for catastrophic wildfires. Species used for pulp and paper production have the added problem that they act as "fuel" as they're highly flammable, which facilitates ignition and spread of fires.

In Portugal the situation is not as dire not because it is less agricultural but because it rains substantially more!

While the main theme of this video is correct (the looming water crisis in Spain, and environmental impact of intensive fruit and vegetable cultivation), it is misleading to describe Spain as "the bread basket of Europe". Its wheat production is modest (4 - 8.5m tonnes/year) compared to France (30-40m), Ukraine (16-32m), Germany (20-28m), Turkey (17-22m), UK (10-17m) and Poland (9-12.5m). Spain is better described as the fruit and salad bowl of Europe. Portugal is also greener as it benefits from prevailing westerly winds off the Atlantic. BTW - is it wise to promote investing in art?

"Spain needs to start seeing things from an environmental perspective, not just a financial one"...we all do, buddy, we all do.

Here in Bulgaria (which is at the same latitude as northern Spain) we are facing similar problems. In the last 20 years snowfall has decreased at an alarming rate. This is a big problem not only for agriculture but also for the supply of drinking water. Forestfires occur more and more often.

Spain as the breadbasket of Europe? I hear that for the first time in my life.

Awesome coverage from Caspian Report! As a Spaniard myself I can add that this has been happening for centuries but the latest 2 years have been very concerning for the lack of rainfall. We're having a major shortage of olive oil due to very bad crops for two years for this very reason. Thanks, Shirvan!

Im from Northern Spain, so usually water issues sound a bit "foreign" in a way. but even here we see less rain now. Still rains a lot, but not as much as it used to be. When I went to school 20 years ago, we got -10ºC degrees in february (Now you are lucky if it gets to 5ºC) and November used to be rain for the whole month. Its october, almost november and I have been going to the beach!! with just 1 weak of rain this october, most days have been sunny and mild... which is insane.

Sounds less like Spain is turning into a desert, and more like Spain adopted an unsustainable USA or specifically a California based agricultural model of intensive, irrigated farm production of crops that don't belong in an already arid environment, and require infrastructure to exist. When something fails, like precipitation in dry years, it becomes obvious how fragile that model is. California has had many dry years for a while, and then 1 extremely wet winter 2022/2023 floods everything and gives a false impression that it can be business as usual, or that it has returned to a wet landscape. In reality, it was always a land with high variability in precipitation, and never a place that should have been built in to a major supplier of agricultural crops.

Who would’ve thought that Spain and Burkina Faso would ever be experiencing the same problem

Masterwork is a scam but your content is very good

It's really wonderful to come across people who freely share valuable information online. You never know what kind of knowledge you might stumble upon that could have a lasting impact on your life.

I have lived in Andalucía for a year and maaan it's beautiful BUT you don't really understand the problem till you're not there - for example you checking the map for a water to drink or to swim - on the map the river is there, you can see that there are also some pictures that people made two years ago - you're going there and the place is dry... Not like there is little bit less of that water - no, it's completely dry, like nothing left :( it's sad but it's true

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plains.

Particularly dramatic is the situation in some national parks, such as Doñana at the southern tip, which is being devastated by illegal water extraction from the aquifers for farming in the area, and the regional government is not doing anything to remedy it; instead, it is doing the opposite.

As someone who has studied soil agricultural ecosystems during my masters, this is pretty accurate! All the recommendations from the end of the video are things that countries all over the world should be adopting. Soil fertility has rapidly declined in the last few decades and the current agricultural practices in many countries are wildly unsustainable. It is a shame that the value of healthy soils is almost never expressed monetarily, so they are often degraded for short term profits. In the long term, healthy soils are invaluable.

Indeed, almost half of everything that is not the north is desertifying. I'm 36 and I remember everything a little greener when I was a child. Major droughts and increasingly mild winters are accelerating the process.

“The truth is we doing inherit the earth from our ancestor’s, we borrow it from our descendants” never heard that one before that was deep.

The comparison between Portugal and the east of Spain is ridiculous, the wind in that latitude blows from west to east, and it carries the clouds with it. So when it rains it does in the western part of the Iberian Peninsula and the air is already dry when it reaches the east part. That doesn't happen in the rest of europe where rain can go deep in the continent because of the mountains, Europe is mainly plain, while Spain is mainly mountainous, and that doesn't help when you want the rain to go deep inside the country. The intense farming might be a cause too, but not the leading one.

I was in Seville back in mid September, 2023. The weather was scorching, with highs peaking around 40-45 degrees Celsius. Seville saw similar weather all summer and even in April. I'm afraid the situation is beyond hope in Andalucia. Even in Zaragoza, the sky had a haze of blowing sand. Spain is at a crisis point.

The economy too is grappling with uncertainties, global fluctuations, and pandemic aftermath, causing instability. Rising inflation, sluggish growth, and trade disruptions need urgent attention from all sectors to restore stability and stimulate growth.

“Em Abril, águas mil” is also a portuguese saying :) Great video once again! Let’s hope there’s a change in politics in our neighbours country.. Two major worries, Portugal 2 main rivera come from Spain, and there’s allways two moments in the year, lack of water in summer and floods in winter, specially because Spain uses their legal limits do the limit. One of the main reasons Portugal is not more active in fruit, cereals and fish markets are becaus of the quotes we were forces to accept when we entered in the EEC, to protect the mais productors in that time, i guess that it ended to be good for our country in terms of enviroment.. Sorry for the Portugal focus, thanks for the video!

With such glaringly obvious signs like this all over the world, it's a wonder the average person isn't more concerned. Time for governments and individuals all over the world to step up.

Caspian Report, the images you shared when talking about the Ebro River are actually from the Tagus River Valley in the Ribatejo Province in Portugal near the city of Santarém.

"the desert is natures way of bankruptcy, once the green is gone all life pays the debt" how does this guy come up with the hardest quotes in every one of his videos

You can say Spain is in pain I see myself out

You nailed it again with this eco-driven analysis of the desertification of Spain. Don't stop your great work.

"Spain is the breadbasket of the EU", isn't that Ukraine & France? As a Brazilian, it sounded a lot like those "The Amazon is the lungs of the world" while most of the oxygen actually comes from sea algae & the Amazon produces 0% of oxygen as it consumes the same ammount it produces.

They are talking about desertification in Spain since long time ago. However, Spain has double it's forests since the 80s as well as dammed water.

I live in Granada and the last 2 summers have been hell on earth. A walk to the corner and back to my apartment to grab food and my tee shirt needs to be changed from sweat. I'd take 2-3 cold showers throughout the day just to stay cool. Restaurants close for weeks at a time and locals head out to the coast for cooler weather.

I've never heard Spain referred to as a 'bread basket', but I've just been to Seville and the heat was incredible even in October.; I drove past many rivers that looked like they havent seen water in a long time. I recall seeing a news article there in May that said farmers were being arrested by the Guardia Civil for drilling illegal boreholes in the Malaga area.

I'm from one of the areas mentiones in the video and have watched myself the desertification firsthand, my running routes turned slowly into desert before my own eyes :( You can't say Spain without pain, unfortunatelly

As a spaniard it's true we have a huge problem with desertification, but it's funny that precisely the day you upload this video it's raining as if it was the day of the deluge. There is a red alert for heavy rains in some regions even.

Spanish drought is created by agriculture too agrissvely. Spain has reached its limits for more agriculture.

Almeria has always been a Desert, Southern Spain isn't a green forest specifically.

The history of forest cover change in Europe is a fascinating topic and your deep dive into it was amazing (along with the rest of the video, water scarcity is terrifying).

Very interesting video. Would it be possible to have access to the research materials used to write this video? I'm a student of environmental studies and I would like to enjoy the academic papers and inquires regarding desertification. Thanks, keep it up guys

And yet developers in southern Spain are still allowed to build properties with swimming pools, most of which to be sold to retirees coming from northern Europe, when southern Spain needs to conserve as much water as it can.

The precipitation data I've looked for Spain show no decrease in rain. Also technically speaking climate change brings more rain as more water is evaporated from the ocean.

According to the European drought observatory, no part of Spain is experiencing drought right now. Either Caspian report or the observatory got it mightily wrong

"En abril, aguas mil" doesn't mean it will rain a lot in april lol. The actual sentence is "En abril cada gota vale por mil": in April every raindrop counts as a thousand. That means the rains during April are very important for crops, but not that it rains a lot. It's in final September--initial November when it rains a lot, but indeed it didn't this year

I want to see Shirvan do a report on the ongoing Nagorno Karakabh (Artsakh) conflict. I wonder if he is allowed to criticise his own country of Azerbaijan?

I really enjoy your videos but I would truly love them if you could name your sources in the video description

There's no such thing as irreversible in nature. We just can't comprehend the time scales. The planet is in constant change

Excelent material! Your videos have constantly had an outstanding quality in terms of information accuracy, historical and geopolitical significance and language and conclusion profesionalism! Keep it up!👏

it doesn't help that ancient populations in Iberia cut down most of the original forests in the central part of the peninsula. Ancient geographers noted the verdant forests prior to large scale urbanization, when most towns were coastal.

I dont know much about Spain, but whenever I hear about water retention issues somewhere, it turns out to be a landscape management issue more than anything else like temperature increase. In my country it happens to be predominance of hardened surfaces in forests, straightening of rivers, and, notably, monoculture forests planted decades ago that are susceptible to pests and when they start dying off in waves, surprise surprise entire regions dry out in no time. But there is no such thing as "irreversible desertification". Its just a trend that might take more resources and time than governments are able to commit, if there is no one permanently settled ion the desertifying area willing to fight back against the trend. Often however local communities can make a giant impact in their region. Chain more such areas with interested locals and voila, your negative trend tends to get pushed back in a few decades or less.

As a Spanish environmental engineer, I can't THANK YOU enough for making this video. Not only is it accurate in denouncing that water scarcity and soil loss are the main problems Spain faces, but also that reckless irrigation and agricultural practices, and loss of healthy forest cover are to blame for most of it. Thank you for spreading the message that in order to keep our territory moist, we need to use less water, maybe even reducing our agricultural exports for a while, and improve our soil by increasing infiltration and reducing erosion using native species to increase natural land and soil conservation practices in agriculture.

I always thought of Spain as a fruitbasket because of the Citrus and other warm climate crops difficult further north in Europe, but I suppose wheat and other originally Middle Eastern grains are shortgrass prairie plants, so well adapted to the dry grasslands of semi-arid lands like southern Spain.

Spain and California are quite similar.

Half of Spain has ALWAYS been arid! 😂

Great video. Regarding the fauna originally found in Spain, you might want to revise on the topic. Maritime Pines were not the main tress found in the Iberian Peninsula, but rather the most valuable ones. This is because they were used for ship building. The Iberian Peninsula can be divided in two different climate regions by tracing a line along the tagus river. The northern part, home humid, used to be home to extensive oak and other deciduous forests. These oak forests were not necessary evergreen, as English oak (quercus rubor), a deciduous trees, can be naturally found around the coast line between the Pyrenees mountains and the Lisbon region (the most humid areas). Other deciduous oaks, such as Quercus pyrenaica and Quercus faginea, and numerous deciduous tress (Castanea sativa) overlap the same area and populate more inland territory. The evergreen oak trees (e.g. quercus suber , Quercus ilex, Quercus canariensis) and Maritime pines (Pinus pinaster) are mostly found in the other, and proliferate on low quality soil. They are also more resistant to wildfires, and will rapidly recover after one. This is a oversimplification, but gives you an idea of the fauna diversity you should find in the "unspoilled" Iberian Peninsula, including Portugal. From what I read, human activity greatly influenced the fauna of the peninsula. There was devastation of the once-large oak forests for (1) heating, (2) ship building during the age of discoveries and (3) Agriculture/Industrialization. Wood exploration was so severe that in XIII century Portugal our Kings Afonso III and Dinis I were forced to implement the first reflorestation plan in the Leiria region with, yes, Maritime Pines (Pinus pinaster). Even though laws were passed to preserve/expand forests, deforestation continued and peaked during the XVIII century (check this paper for the facts: Reboredo, F.; Pais, J. Evolution of Forest Cover in Portugal: A Review of the 12th-20th Centuries. J Forestry Res 2014, 25, 249-256.). The reflorestation initiatives undertaken in the past 100 years were a huge effort, but the species chosen were not the best ones, just like you mentioned in the video. We are still suffering the effects of that bad choice, including uncontrolled wild fires and depletion of water reserves. This aggravates the desertification of the Peninsula, especially if we also practice intensive aggriculture.

Many of these cities are marked in the wrong place on your map. The regional names were also a little out of place

As always, scientists have warned, they have the Desertification Research Centre (CIDE) that has planned out how to avoid this many years ago, but not enough was done, it takes a crisis for the political will to deal with a problem.

I was in Spain last year at the height of the drought. It was shocking to see how dry the country has become. The good news is that it has rained a lot for the past 10 days accross the country even Andalucia. The only region that didn't get a lot of rain is Catalunya. And the forecast for the Fall predicts lots of rain. But overall Spain has to rethink its agricultural model which is not sustainable especially its fruit and vegetable "factories" in Andalucia!

You guys are killing it!

thanks for this report, just so you know, nothing of this is know in our country best regards from SPAIN

You mentioned Almeria and Andalucia as different places.. Almeria is in Andalucia.. Almeria is a province within Andalucia. Great Video

Thank you. Fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Just a side note, Almería is a province (one of the eight) in Andalucia. You spoke of them as if separate entities.

Thanks to Caspian for sheeding light on a topic not enough talked about

Thanks for the video

You ever heard of forestation? That is the only way to fix desertification. Trees attract moisture attract and produce moisture while releasing fresh oxygen. Phoenix,AZ has more moisture now that more people have moved into the area and planted grass and trees.

Great, informative video, thank you! Some comments: the pronunciation hurts. The 'E' in Ebro is like 'especially'. Almería has an accent on the 'í', not on the 'e'. Asturias is marked as a city, but the city is Gijón or Avilés, Asturias is a region.

Fascinating, great video

These last sentences of your intros are always so creative. How do you even come up with these ?

I have never once heard Spain being referred to as the Breadbasket of Europe before...

Curiously Spain is the 2 country in Europe Union with more forest surface with 28 million hectares after Sweden.

Why is agriculture with greenhouses a problem? What do you need pesticides for, if the produce is in a glasshouse? How do you need so much water, when the glasshouse is somewhat isolated and the water vapor should condense and be recoverable? How does the land erode and degrade, when it's under your roof and under your full control?

Did I hear you comment on the increasing CO2 and how it affects the crops? My understanding is it is a boon for plant life and we just need better water management. Also rotate crops. The Bible says to let the land rest every seven years just like the human Sabbath.

The north of africa was once much more lush and green and the sahara desert was much smaller and thinner. I would live to have seen the area pre 1400s

Good report as always.

I think we all need to think about our farming practices. We need as a collective improve yeilds while saving our water supplies

I am sure Spain will make great progress with helping to reverse this challenging trend. Love to Spain from your friends in Ireland.

You know what would be really smart, putting a picture on top of the video, and leaving it there during the entire presentation so as to burn the screen and obfuscate the video. I think that is just so intelligent it makes me want to subscribe.

7:20 Portugal has always looked greener not because of soil degradation (which is also happening) but because the main winds and humidity comes the Atlantic and they don't have mountains blocking the atlantic flow unlike Spain

Mainwhile in Morocco and north africa 💀

what about desalinization? Is it expensive to build, maintain or both? wouldnt it be a way to combat the problem?

Hey, love your videos, quick note though, you show a map of the EU where the top half of Cyprus is coloured grey. Even though the EU does not recognise the T.R.N.C., the north part of Cyprus is still legally considered a part of the Republic of Cyprus, thus being able to use the Euro etc. Unless some political change occurred within the EU that recognises the T.R.N.C. as a separate state, that I am not aware of, that part should be coloured blue. Thanks for the consideration and again, I love your content!

I'm in that red area in Spain it hadn't rained for so long, but as I speak it is absolutely raining cats and dogs almost as if a higher power watched your video and wanted to prove you wrong

I always thought France was the breadbasket of Europe.

I worry the situation might degrade even further with even a potential for conflict, just across the border in Portugal there is the Alqueva dam, this dam is huge, its the largest artificial lake in Europe, it transformed the dry southern reagions of Portugal, now Spanish farmers want that water because there are long droughts but autumn usually brings storms(like today it is crazy rainy) and that allows the dam to fill, The Alqueva Dam has more water than all of the dams in Andaluzia. But Spanish want more water from the Guadiana River, including an ilegal capture in Chança dam(Guadiana is the border here), that eats Alqueva's ecological flow which requires further water to be released.

3 days ago it was the most rainy day in madrid history

I believe the saying is: We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

When summer arrives in southern Spain, the shade is a blessing. The storage of water, its use drop by drop in agriculture and reforestation are in our genes because for centuries they have been the key to survival. That is why Spanish cuisine is so natural and so varied.

I just bought a lovely house with land in a Catalan forest, the landscape is mountainous and green, and captures humidity as fog and rain. I believe that climate change and the consequent ecological collapse will end our species, I just hope I can live out the rest of my life without having to leave Spain.

ahhhh, the goddess of lake michigan keeping me safe for another 100 years

Hey, if you don't mind, what are you using for map editing?

Why don't they just built a fresh water pipeline along to coast from the Pyrenees to Almeria? It would be about as long as the Nordstream pipelines and could deliver water to all big centers on the Spanish east coast. The cost compared to Nordstream would be much lower, because it's much less sensitive. All it needs is that the beginning of the pipeline is the highest point.

obviously spanish will never go hungry, but europe might.

Watched the first second and already got my awnser. Thanks.

Tourism is also not sustainable at all. An area were normally live 50k people, in summer, the dry station, suddently it become an area were 200k people live.

The emptying of rural regions and lack of upkeep of rural infrastructure is hastening the drying of the Spanish countryside. This is an issue that was identified a decade or two ago.

Anyone heard about herding cattle into the desert gradually, so it becomes fertile again? It's the long game, but in time, the reconquered area starts growing exponentially. It's been tried in Africa, South America, and they had really good results.