In order to complete these specific research objectives I relied on a methodological approach that combined interviews, participant observation, archival research and textual analysis. Between the fall of 2021 and the summer of 2022 long-term fieldwork was carried out in the Doñana region. Conclusions indicate that:
(1) Groundwater depletion is not properly understood as the result of a conflict between economic development and environmental protection; the regional agricultural model has deepened existing ties of dependency and struggles to contain both its ecological and social consequences.
(2)While a “mismatch” between scaling to an environmental space and scaling to jurisdictional spaces characterizes the case of Doñana, it cannot be resolved by a redrawing of spatial boundaries.
(3) Ethnographic research reveals the existence of a coalition of regional interests that coordinates the production of labour and the production of water as agrarian inputs; this coalition lays the condition for the import of both, through water transfers in the case of water and “contracting in the country of origin” in the case of labour.
(4) Alternative attempts to integrate agriculture and conservation by stressing the importance of community-level management have glossed over power dynamics at the local level and they fail to consider as environmental subjects those most affected by the extractive characteristics of the existing agricultural model.
(5) We are currently witnessing a reconfiguration of the conflict between agriculture and conservation as lands that lose their use value because of water scarcity are revalorized through processes of ecological valuation. In this most recent phase of the conflict, rather than accumulating water rights, farmers will be more likely to trade fictitious water rights through land sales; while there is no formal market in water rights, the existing conservation model contributes to the provisional, speculative emergence of one.
The project has so far resulted in a book proposal, a submitted and published article, an article under review, a book chapter under review. Additional publications are in preparation. The project has also resulted in an international conference and a workshop and six invited lectures and conference presentations. The project has fulfilled its commitment to communicate project findings to different target audiences through a variety of activities, including presentations in local and regional non-academic events. The project’s commitment to the communication of research findings in a format accessible to ordinary citizens and non-academic stakeholders has been also fulfilled through the elaboration of a multimedia project. “Echoes of Doñana: audio cartography of a socio-ecological conflict” presents the territorialization of the Doñana conflict through an interactive multimedia cartography (available at www.originsofscarcity.com).
