Barcelona They are monogamous, adventurous and do not know what vertigo is. In fact, they have a predilection for living on cliffs and in large human constructions. One of them is the Camp Nou. “They like the size and height of the stadium. In addition, when there are no matches, they find tranquility there,” a source from the Department of Climate Action of the Generalitat de Catalunya explains to ARA. It refers to the main clandestine inhabitants of the Blaugrana stadium, the crossbowmen. Camp Nou is their summer home and they use it like a Barcelona resident uses their second home on the Costa Brava: to spend the summer in the best way possible. 22 pairs nest there and around 200 single individuals sleep there.
“When demolition work began on part of the third tier of the south goal during the World Cup, the Climate Action department implemented, together with Barça, a series of measures to protect them during the remodeling period the stadium,” continues the same source. By that time, the crossbills, which are protected urban birds that can fly up to 110 kilometers per hour, had already left for Africa to spend the winter there. But the ground had to be prepared to prevent the colony of this bird, about 20 centimeters long, from returning to the same nests at the Camp Nou, made with its saliva and with fibers it picks up during the flight, which he had temporarily abandoned on the concrete railings of the third tier. Especially, in those of the southern goal.
What Barça (by hiring a specialized company), the Rural Agents (using drones and specialist climbers) and the Flora and Fauna Section of the Department of Climate Action of the Generalitat of Catalonia did then it was to put nets on the facade of the Blaugrana stadium to prevent crossbowmen from accessing it and to install sensors to record whether they were trying to do so. “The sensors have been activated a few times, but they have not nested,” explains the Generalitat source. “We have already detected how the crossbowmen have looked for other places to nest this summer. For example, on the walls of the Escola Técnica Superior d’Arquitectura (close to Camp Nou) and Sant Just Desvern, without any noticeable decrease of the number of copies,” he adds.
Barça will install nests in the new Camp Nou
When a work leads to the demolition of a building and this implies an affectation for the protected fauna, compensatory measures are established. In this case, with the active collaboration of Barça, they will consist of the creation of spaces for nesting and staying at the Camp Nou once the remodeling works are finished. This will not only lead to the return of crossbowmen, but also of other species that normally frequent the Blaugrana temple: bats (there are colonies in the tribune area), buzzards, kestrels, sparrows or starlings. The club explains that, “for biological purposes, the stadium is a cliff and the surroundings an open space with trees”. The Camp Nou grounds are also home to reptiles such as the common dragon and the brown lizard.
A colony of a hundred cats
Currently, there are few wild cats living in Camp Nou. But in 2012, Barça, together with Barcelona City Council and the Fundació Silvestre, which specializes in the management of cat colonies, took measures to sterilize and relocate the colony of a hundred specimens that were there, the vast majority black in color “At the Camp Nou they found food thanks to the food points and the tons of rubbish that are generated at each match, and also peace of mind on the days when there was no event”, Cristina Dalmau, president of the Silvestre Foundation. “They loved the sofas in the office of the Barça Foundation and, during the week, you could see them lying on the grass of the stadium soaking up the sun,” he continues.
Anyway, he points out that “they were not in very good health” and, for this reason, they had to take measures. “At first an attempt was made to relocate them to a garden area behind the Ministadium, but they ended up returning to the point of origin.” Finally, the club and the Animal Protection Office of Barcelona (OPAB) took them to areas further away from the stadium to solve the situation. One of the puppies, however, was kept by Cristina. He still has it today. His name is Messi.
The club pays 230,000 euros to the City Council for the felling of the tree
The remodeling works of the Camp Nou and its surroundings will mean that Barça will have to cut down sixty trees and palm trees that will not be transplanted. The Norma Granada dictates that the value of this flora is 229,778.16 euros, an amount that the Blaugrana club has already paid to Barcelona City Council as compensation. Anyway, the Espai Barça project plans to expand the green area by around 20,000 square metres.
2023-07-04 12:20:06
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