(Agencies) The ‘new’ bird observatory at Monte Cazalla (photo: EuropaSur) will not be opened for at least a year, according to Tarifa Councillor Paola Moreno. Announced a year ago as ‘one of the best places in Europe to watch the migration of birds’,> the observatory has been subject to vandalism, although the main problems arise from the need to access it to the N-340 coast road as well as to connect water and electricity.
Mancomunidad de Municipios has said that it is hoped to solve the problem through one of the employment plans available in the area, while Tarifa Council knows there are problems regarding water and electricity but was unaware that Mancomunidad intended to come to an agreement about repairs and completion.
The observatory would include an educational centre for school children, an exhibition centre and a cafeteria, as well as specially prepared observation areas. However, what was to become an international reference point for ornithologists that would be a major local attraction is now a new empty building, completely unused, while bird watchers are often to be seen in the area.
There are over 4 million registered bird watchers in the USA and Britain alone, a market worth several thousand million euros a year. ‘Ornithological tourism’ as it’s called in Spanish, is therefore one of the principal ways for the development of Tarifa, which suffers the effects of ‘seasonality’, when tourism is practically non-existent other than in summer.
