Urdaibai: The high price of being a biosphere reserve
Urdaibai won its biggest fight against the Guggenheim Museum at the end of 2025. Now the real challenge is yet to be faced: can a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve preserve its exceptional nature while allowing local people to live, work and build a future in the area?
Urdaibai is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve located in the Busturialdea shire of the Basque Country, in northern Spain. Declared in 1984 and being the fourth to be named “Biosphere Reserve” in Spain and the first one in the Basque Country, it is one of the most important wetlands in the Cantabrian coast and Southern Europe.
Its estuary, marshes, oak forests and surrounding villages such as Gernika or Bermeo form a unique landscape of 22.000 hectares where nature and human life have coexisted for many centuries. Today, this Basque coastal treasure faces the complex challenge of protecting its exceptional biodiversity while allowing local people to live, work and thrive with dignity.
The scientific view: “Urdaibai is giving life to other places”
Javier Franco, Head of the Biology Department at AZTI, has spent years studying the estuary. His team has been monitoring the area for more than 30 years. According to Franco, the water quality of the estuary has clearly improved in recent years thanks to the implementation of wastewater treatment plants. However, he stresses that there is still significant room for improvement through ecological restoration.
One of the most valuable features of Urdaibai, explains Franco, are its seagrass meadows: underwater plants that play a crucial role in the marine ecosystem. Urdaibai holds the largest extension of these seagrasses in the entire Basque Country, but what makes them especially important is that scientists from AZTI are using them as a source to restore other damaged estuaries:
“We are carrying out ecological restoration projects, taking some parts of these seagrasses from Urdaibai bay and putting them in other estuaries. We have been very successful in this. Nowadays we have some seagrasses in Butron estuary and in Oria estuary that have been generated by these restoration initiatives. Urdaibai is giving life to other places.”
Franco also highlights the broader challenges of global change. While climate change (sea level rise, increasing temperatures) is a major issue, he points out that other human-caused factors, such as habitat alteration, over-exploitation of resources, pollution and invasive species are often even more pressing in the estuary.
Environmental challenges and daily management
While scientists study the estuary from a laboratory perspective, those working daily on the ground are facing the daily tension of managing a protected territory where nature and people must coexist.
Ricardo Hernández, Co-Founder of the former Ecology Workshop of Gernika-Lumo, and Gaizka Aurrekoetxea, Environment Technician and Councillor in Bermeo City Council, share deep concerns about the current environmental pressures on Urdaibai.
Hernández believes that the cancellation of the Guggenheim project has created a valuable opportunity, but warns that the real challenges are still there:
“Urdaibai has to achieve two things at the same time: protect its natural values and guarantee a dignified life for its inhabitants.”
Gaizka Aurrekoetxea is more outspoken about the day-to-day reality. He explains that although Urdaibai is a highly protected area, some of the most serious environmental threats receive surprisingly little attention:
“90% of my work is in the urban area, not in natural ones. People want to live, renovate their houses, have a future here… but the rules are very strict.”
One of the biggest but least visible problems, according to Aurrekoetxea, is the intensive forestry model that dominates much of the reserve. Large areas are covered by monocultures of pine and eucalyptus, managed with heavy machinery in a "very aggressive way." This practice causes significant soil erosion, affects river basins and contributes to the degradation of the ecosystem.
Panoramic view of the Urdaibai marsh from The Kanala Cemetery. Video by Asier Abad.
Another serious and growing threat is the proliferation of invasive plant species. According to Aurrekoetxea, the American Baccharis halimifolia is “rapidly replacing native vegetation such as the reedbed” in the marshes. He also describes the current situation with concern:
“These invasive plants are transforming the habitat. They are changing the marsh in a silent but very aggressive way. If you don’t have a trained eye, you may not even realise what is happening.”
Both Hernández and Aurrekoetxea agree that, despite the legal protection, there hasn’t been enough political will or resources dedicated to ecological restoration and proper long-term management of these environmental challenges. Gaizka is especially critical of the institutions:
“There are institutions that have never really believed that this is a special space. They talk about protection, but in daily practice, environmental issues are not a real priority.”
The fight to protect the reserve: “Guggenheim Urdaibai Stop”
In February 2023, a group of citizens from the Busturialdea shire decided they had to take action against the Guggenheim Museum, which planned to build two headquarters: one in Gernika and the other one in Murueta, straight into the heart of the reserve. What began as concern quickly became one of the most significant citizen movements in the Basque Country in recent years. Eider Gotxi, the main representative for the collective Guggenheim Urdaibai Stop, explains the moment when the platform was born:
“We realised that they were breaking some laws, urban plans of the villages and the Coastal Law. We decided that we had to do something more than just protesting.”
For almost three years, the struggle was intense and exhausting. They organised massive demonstrations in Gernika and Bilbao, filed legal complaints, made allegations, and carried out constant awareness-raising work across the 20 municipalities of the shire. Finally, the victory came in late 2025, when the institutions announced the cancellation of the project in December. Eider Gotxi remembers that moment with a mixture of relief and determination:
“We won the battle, but now we have to win the war for the future of Urdaibai. Even though the elephant is no longer in the room, we still have objectives that have not been fulfilled.”
According to Eider, although the main threat was removed last year, the fight is "far from being over." One of the platform’s main current priorities is the removal of the abandoned shipyard in Murueta, a municipality located in the heart of the reserve. This industrial facility, built in 1943 during Francisco Franco's dictatorship, has been contaminating the marsh for more than 80 years. Even though its concession officially expired in 2018, the structure remains standing, occupying part of the core protection zone and continuing to release pollutants into the estuary.
Additionally, the group is working with other associations in the region to propose new economic projects for the Busturialdea shire that will respect the ecological limits of the reserve, such as, for example, a Faculty of Environment or an Oceanography Department of the University of the Basque Country, as Gotxi suggests.
The victory against the Guggenheim Museum not only stopped a project many considered incompatible with the values of the biosphere reserve, it also empowered the local citizens. As Eider Gotxi notes, people in the region now feel more aware and more willing to defend their territory "when it's necessary."
Urdaibai Bird Center: "An international airport for birds raising awareness”
Located on the shores of the estuary, the Urdaibai Bird Center has become one of the most important educational and interpretive spaces within the Biosphere Reserve. Far from being just a tourist attraction, the centre works as a bridge between local communities, visitors, and the wetland’s rich biodiversity. With its strategic location in Gautegiz Arteaga and the multiple activities it offers, it plays a key role in raising awareness about the ecological value of Urdaibai.
Panoramic view of the Urdaibai marsh from the Urdaibai Bird Center Tower. Video by Asier Abad.
Rowan Hardman, the environmental educator and guide of the Urdaibai Bird Center, plays a key role in connecting people with the biosphere reserve. She explains how the centre has transformed local awareness:
“The Bird Center has brought a huge change in people’s awareness of the importance of the wetland. Local school children now talk about spoonbills and greenshanks instead of elephants or tigers.”
The centre receives around 40,000 visitors per year and deliberately promotes a sustainable, low-impact model of tourism. Rowan is very clear about their philosophy:
“We don’t want massification. We want people to come to know and respect, not just to take photos.”
She also highlights the educational work with schools and groups of functional diversity. The centre has an audio guide in 8 languages for adults and a special treasure-hunt version for children. Rowan Hardman emphasises that Urdaibai is not a wild, empty natural park. It is a biosphere reserve, a place where humans and nature must find harmony:
“A biosphere reserve is somewhere where industry, people’s activities and nature must live together. It’s not a natural park where you don’t find towns or buildings.”
However, she acknowledges the growing pressures. Issues such as dogs off-leash disturbing birds, fireworks and the increasing number of visitors during peak seasons are constant challenges. The centre works not only to educate visitors but also to protect the habitats that make Urdaibai internationally important, but especially as a resting and feeding site for thousands of migratory birds from all over the world.
A balance to prosper is more than necessary
Urdaibai is a living example of the difficulties of sustainable development in Europe. As Ricardo Hernández says, the region must find stability between protecting its extraordinary natural heritage and ensuring a dignified future for its people.
The victory against the Guggenheim Museum showed that local citizens can defend their territory against big foreign corporations. The real challenge now is to build a future where nature protection and human life can truly coexist. As Rowan Hardman clarified, a biosphere reserve is a place where both human and nature coexist in a perfect equilibrium.
