It’s not any stadium, mythical enclosure of Barcelona in Spain, the Camp Nou is the largest football stadium in Europe with its capacity of more than 99,000 seats, and therefore its fauna, its birds, that Jordi Portabella invites us to look, to observe, to admire. At 62, this biology graduate and football fan directs the Catalan Foundation for Innovation and Research.
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A few weeks ago, the leaders of the stadium asked him to establish an ecological strategy for the building, so to show that there is nature there to defend, he has just released a guide to the fauna of the Camp No.
50 pages, downloadable for free on the Internet and filled with photos of the real inhabitants of the stadium, those who don’t care about victories, defeats, or possible scandals like the one in progress on the remuneration of referees, in short, those who really elected domicile in the stadium. And it’s not just pigeons. If you look closely, you can admire three species of finches, two of swifts, three of tits, swallows, magpies, starlings, and then wagtails, doves, not to mention a couple of kestrels, and even a peregrine falcon which Nests right next to it and goes through the stadium to hunt.
Birds but also bats and reptiles
Barcelona being a port city, there are also seagulls and gulls, we can also mention three species of parakeets which are all descended from pets that have escaped or been released by their owners. And then there are not only birds, just above the platform, the section reserved for the president of the club, there is a colony of bats, and finally, in the bays of geckos and wall lizards . Something to remind us that far from the image of full, crowded, bubbling stadiums, most of the time, these are quiet places, without much human traffic.
Jordi Portabella suggests to the stadium managers to optimize the building and its surroundings to protect biodiversity, like what the English club of Dartford is doing: stop concrete, green everything that can be, the roof , parking, or collect rainwater to water the land. While the latest WWF report tells us that 70% of vertebrate animal populations have disappeared from the face of the Earth since 1970, everyone must do their part, including the sports world. And no doubt it starts with showing all this life that surrounds us in order to then better protect it, in the city and elsewhere.