The east of Madrid looks forward to the opposite side of the capital, aspiring to have a space equivalent to the Casa de Campo: a large green lung that extends around Las Lagunas de Ambroz, a valuable wetland and biodiversity refuge located between San Blas-Canillejas, Vicálvaro, Coslada, San Fernando and El Cañaveral.
The land covers between 600 and 700 hectares but now, according to environmental groups and associations, "the Community of Madrid has authorized a mining company to continue exploiting the area to extract sepiolite." And they add: "To do so, it is planned to intervene in this space and empty the lagoon."
In this area, the Tolsa mining company obtained a permit in 1977 to extract sepiolite for 30 years, a clayey and very porous mineral that absorbs large quantities of liquids quickly, from oils and water to fuels.
In 2007, extraction was completed on one of the awarded lands. The holes created in the ground filled with water from the water table and gave rise to the Ambroz Lagoons. For almost two decades, the place was experiencing a process of spontaneous renaturalization that populated the environment with plant and animal species, something that caught the attention of neighbors, scientists and ecologists.
"In 2016, this area began to be known by a good part of the citizens. An Environment table was created between the different neighborhoods and it was demanded that it be cleaned, recovered and put at the service of the people of Madrid," Enrique Villalobos, from the Regional Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Madrid (FRAVM), begins by explaining. And he continues: "Then the pandemic arrived, in 2020, and with it many people began to walk through this space. In summer it is a cool environment where you can see gray herons, grebes, the sapper martin or other animals. That's why we neighbors give it so much value."
Faced with the "danger" of this place disappearing, organizations such as the Regional Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Madrid (Fravm), SEO/BirdLife, Ecologistas en Acción, WWF and Greenpeace have joined forces, supporting neighborhood groups that demand the protection of these green hectares and, furthermore, that they become classified as "non-developable land with ecological protection."
Lung and natural refrigerator
The Casa de Campo Ambroz project covers an area that is almost half the size of the Casa de Campo in western Madrid. It has a large lagoon with a surface area of eight hectares, two kilometers in diameter and an estimated depth of 10 meters. The proposal seeks to create an equivalent in the east of the capital that functions as a natural "lung and refrigerator", balancing urban temperatures and buffering the heat island on that side of the city.
"It is the space with the largest amount of trees in this entire area. There are about 400 trees over 20 centimeters in diameter. Imagine the carbon sink that this represents for the city, apart from providing humidity and freshness," says Miguel Ángel García, member of the group that seeks to save the Lagunas de Ambroz and its surroundings.
The environmental studies carried out count more than 1,700 species in the enclosure, including 1,100 species of invertebrates. A number that would be affected if, say neighbors, different projects are launched.
On the one hand, there is the development of the Nueva Centralidad del Este sector, in the district of San Blas-Canillejas, a project that the Urban Planning Department of the Madrid City Council is working on that includes the construction of more than 18,000 homes (50% with public protection) and a 43-hectare technological innovation campus. According to residents, with this development the Lagunas de Ambroz would be reduced to 130 hectares of green areas that would be integrated into the Metropolitan Forest.
Added to this urban pressure is the reopening of the open-pit sepiolite mine by the company Tolsa, authorized by the Community of Madrid.
"The Environmental Impact Declaration (DIA) of the Tolsa mining exploitation was formulated on July 12, 2019. Subsequently, the regional government extended its validity until November 30, 2025. And, on that basis, the extension of the exploitation was authorized in July of this year, despite the fact that the EIS had expired and a new one has not been made that we know of," says Villalobos.
As this newspaper published, the Community of Madrid, through the General Directorate of Energy Transition and Circular Economy, has granted the mining extension alleging that "the regional government does not have legal arguments to prevent mining exploitation."
Asked in this regard, company sources argue that "Madrid today has the double challenge of taking advantage of a unique and strategic mineral resource, such as sepiolite, and promoting urban and environmental regeneration of the southeast of the city." They assure that their commitment is to "carry out the best possible model of exploitation and sustainable mining in this deposit" within "a mining activity that is responsible for the environment, monitored by the authorities as in this case and followed by a final restoration that improves the current ecosystem." And they conclude: "The extraction of sepiolite in this deposit has been carried out uninterruptedly and with total normality by Tolsa since the 60s, without affecting the lives of the neighbors or the environment. Likewise, the popularly known as Lagunas de Ambroz are today a flooded mining hole. An active mine, unsafe and inaccessible to citizens, with depths that reach 25 meters and with pronounced and unstable slopes. Therefore, "The mining hole remains fenced and marked, and is inaccessible to pedestrians."
Despite this, neighbors and environmental associations assure that they will continue fighting to preserve this renaturalized corner. They insist that Ambroz is not just an environmental project, it is "a much more ambitious neighborhood initiative." It covers a green strip of about 14 to 15 kilometers in length that would link the Lagunas de Ambroz with the forest parks of Coslada (the Wetland Park and the Cerro Park) and with the Southeast Regional Park.
"The ecological corridor seeks to restore biological connectivity that would allow the flow of fauna and genetic exchange between wild populations to avoid their weakening and immunovulnerability," explains García.
The proposal also aims to offer pedestrian and cycling routes to explore the east of the city continuously through green areas and reduce dependence on private vehicles. Some 400,000 inhabitants of the districts and municipalities of San Blas-Canillejas, Vicálvaro, Coslada, San Fernando de Henares and the new developments of El Cañaveral and Los Cerros would benefit from this route.
"For the neighbors it would be an important connection. In Vicálvaro, for example, there are new developments, but they are focused on housing. Everything that is a green area translates into a benefit for the neighbors; it is quality of life because we could have a natural leisure area," says Alicia, a resident of the district for 30 years.
Fauna in the Ambroz lagoons
Neighbors and environmental educators use applications to collect observations about the local fauna in the Ambroz lagoons, documenting each species they discover in their environment.
Through participatory platforms, volunteers record both birds and butterflies through detailed lists, photographs and audio recordings that are validated by regional experts.
"Right now we have recorded up to 36 different butterflies. One observation that was very interesting was that of the strawberry tree butterfly, which lays its eggs on strawberry trees," says Sara, another member of the group who wants to save the Ambroz Lagoons.
