Protected natural sites are vital for biodiversity and wildlife, but harmful industrial activities and unsustainable management are pushing some of these wonders toward the edge of the abyss.
A devastating forest fire has drawn international attention to Spain's national park Doñana - but this is only a spark of the ongoing drama in the area. This UNESCO World Heritage site is struggling to survive other pressures, such as intensive and illegal farming.
But Doñana isn't an exception in Europe. Environmental activists have recently been stepping up campaigns to protect areas as iconic as Europe's last remaining primeval forest
in Poland, or essential habitat for brown bears in Bulgaria.
Conservation progress attained in Europe over the past decades is in danger of being reversed, if required management and political will are not galvanized to prioritize long-term ecological benefits over short-term economic ones.
Threats to Europe's natural wonders
Despite strong conservation legislation in the European Union, over half of Europe's natural areas are not properly protected, according to a recent WWF report.
The EU's Natura 2000 is the largest coordinated network of protected areas in the world, and covers one-fifth of the land area in the EU. But much of this protection remains only on paper.
"The legal protection of these areas is of good quality - but it is not properly implemented by all EU members," Sabien Leemans, senior biodiversity policy officer with WWF, told DW.
Many Natura 2000 sites are under threat by unsustainable tourism, industrial activities or intensive agriculture, Leemans explained.
Although outlawed, that takes place due to a lack of law enforcement, effective management and necessary funding - both from national governments and from the European Commission.
Unsustainable activities threaten wonders of nature like Plitvice National Park in Croatia
Doñana: an extreme case
The wetland complex in southern Spain is among Europe's most important areas for migratory birds, and is home to endemic species such as the imperial eagle or the endangered Iberian lynx (the world's rarest feline).
Doñana also supports socioeconomic development of the area - it produces, for instance, 70 percent of strawberries nationally.
But water in the region is 80 percent lower than its natural level three decades ago, due mainly to unsustainable water use for intensive farming - which is illegal, in many cases.
Doñana marshlands are drying out quickly
Critically endangered birds that were once usual visitors in Doñana are now almost gone.
The devastating forest fire started this past Saturday was not a surprise for environmental activists - who have been warning of the risk for a decade.
"Intensive and illegal farming and a lack of an adequate management make this area even more vulnerable to devastating fires," Juan Romero, spokesperson for the Spanish group Ecologistas en Acción (Ecologists in Action) in Doñana, told DW.
The Spanish government has not reacted to previous EU and UNESCO warnings, he added. This natural disaster might, at least, serve to get some recognition of the problem, Romero hopes.
The forest fire in Doñana has forced evacuation of a breeding center for Iberian lynx
UNESCO's natural heritage sites at risk
Elsewhere in Europe, the Bulgarian government this past March gave the green light to a draft plan to increase by 10 times construction areas within Pirin National Park, home to grey wolves and the rarest woodpecker in Europe, among many other species.
WWF warns that such a decision goes against national law, as well as UNESCO recommendations.
Meanwhile, in Warsaw last Saturday, hundreds protested against a large increase of logging areas in the Bialowieza Forest. This came several days after environment minister Jan Szyszko called to strip the forest of its UNESCO natural heritage status.
Logging started in parts of Poland's oldest forest about a year ago
The Croatian Plitvice Lakes National Park, a network of turquoise waters in a dramatic mountainous landscape, has joined the list.
Mass tourism and planned construction projects are threatening the existence of this natural paradise at stake. Its main symbol, the Great Waterfall, is running almost dry.
"The waterfall has 60 percent less water than it used to," Leemans highlighted.
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