Doñana is one of the world’s nature conservation flagship areas, highly important not only for the local ecosystems but also as a stopover or wintering site for millions of birds. However, since WWF’s conservation engagement in the 1960s, the deterioration of the area has increased. Biodiversity decline is caused by several factors, but water overabstraction is one of the most relevant ones. Therefore, for more than a decade, WWF has been working with local farmers and European consumers to promote more responsible farming, including berries.
However, still in 2024, according to a WWF review, more than 16% of the berries from Doñana are being produced on land which has been illegally occupied and/or irrigated without the corresponding permit. The review is backed by official documents of the regional government. Despite numerous certification standards in place and these might be appropriate for other berry production areas, but most are still showing gaps regarding the legal requirements in the Doñana area, as reflected in a recent WWF review.
With these gaps, compliance and due diligence remain to a large part in the responsibility of retailers. WWF is committed to strengthening scalable efforts on the ground to ensure responsible and resilient supply chains, whether through standards and certification on a field level or participation in collective action approaches on a catchment level.
Therefore, with this assessment, WWF aims to capture the current state-of-the-art of the engagement of European corporates and identify the needs and interests for further actions. It targets the 2024-2025 campaign of berry supply (considering strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and others) and covers different actions, such as the legal use of water and land, strengthening of certification standards, and supporting local collective action in water stewardship.