Ebro Delta

Declared in 1983, the Ebro Delta is the second most extensive wetland in Spain after Doñana, formed by the sediment the river Ebro has laid down at its Mediterranean mouth over thousands of years. Its landscape combines wide rice fields — the region's principal crop since the 18th century — with lagoons and sandy beaches that serve as a critical migratory stop for hundreds of thousands of birds between Europe and Africa, and which in recent decades have faced accelerating coastal erosion linked to the drop in sediment carried down by the river, held back by the many dams in its catchment.