On Christmas Eve, Jesús Garzón left us at the age of 77, when wise men, heroes or poets can leave, because all this was Suso for environmentalists. A unique conservationist and naturalist, formed in the open air and accustomed to sleeping under the stars, taught from a young age by the fire of guardians and shepherds, enlightened and cultivated like no other and a true graduate of the University of Nature.
I still remember clearly a conversation that we had more than 30 years ago, when I was very young, in Extremadura, next to a modest bush, and in which Suso, who, like no one else, was able to find one with this depth and slow voice convinced me that there was nothing modest about the bush. He explained to me in an impassioned tone that the bramble was a miracle of nature, that it laid the ground next to the water, that it was the larder of the northern warblers when they migrated, and a veritable armed fortress where the rabbits and the lynx The hunted found refuge. And he concluded with some verses about blackberries and a recipe for making jam. This was Suso, a walking encyclopedia with overwhelming knowledge of everything around him, able to interpret a landscape with just a glance and connect the invisible storylines of nature with centuries of human history and the popular culture that surrounded him.
In the seventies, when only those who lived there went to the countryside, Suso, with the support of the WWF, traveled inch by inch through the mountains and plains of still wild and unexplored Spain in search of the last lynxes, wolves, bears, capercaillies and bustards. and the few remaining pairs of imperial eagles, almost extinct, cornered by an uneducated society that still viewed them as mere vermin. This groundbreaking knowledge allowed him to implement the first measures for their conservation and earned him, from an early age, the friendship of Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente and the respect of the best biologists and scientists, benefiting from the extraordinary knowledge of the animal world that he had possessed, were enthusiastically shown. .
In the mid-seventies, while exploring the mountains of Extremadura and climbing the castle of Monfragüe, he discovered how the excavators of the National Institute for Nature Conservation (ICONA) were devastating the slopes at the mouth of the Tejo River and the Tietar, uprooting cork oaks and olive trees trees and jaguar trees to replace the native forest with monotonous eucalyptus trees. Leaving everything behind, Suso moved in with Isabel, his traveling companion, and her children in the heart of Monfragüe and devoted himself body and soul to a true crusade inside and outside Spain until he managed to stop the terracing and the declaration of Monfragüe as a natural park in 1979. Without their determination and courage, this temple of Mediterranean biodiversity that we are proud of today would certainly not exist.
In 1984, he was appointed Director General of Environment of the Government of Extremadura and made history by becoming the first conservationist to lead an administration and managing to put this unknown region at the top of the biodiversity map of Europe. But three years later he left the offices to return to activism and the field. Because Suso was a conservationist who participated in the creation and life of some of the most important conservation organizations in our country, such as WWF, Seo/Birdlife, ADENEX in Extremadura, ARCA in Cantabria, CODA or the Natural Heritage Fund, which in these years of Developmentalism, countless battles have been fought to save from machines and consolidate many of the natural jewels that we are fortunate to have in Spain today. Suso was a teacher and a reference for many people who lead environmental protection today and who were lucky enough to know him and learn from him.
Defender of transhumance
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However, he will probably be most remembered for his fight to restore livestock routes, for factory farming and for defending the last nomadic peoples against the overwhelming current model based on industrial, unsustainable and uprooted livestock farming. On the contrary, Suso strongly defended seasonal grazing as an important, entirely contemporary part of our culture and our history that needed to be saved. And I have defended our 125,000 kilometers of livestock routes as a globally unique infrastructure and strategic weapon for mitigating climate change and adapting to its coming impacts, producing high-quality food while reducing consumption of water, feed and energy. and to combat the abandonment of rural areas and the collapse of traditional culture. To this end, he founded conservation organizations focused on this goal, such as Concejo de la Mesta and Trashumancia y Naturaleza, becoming another shepherd who, every year, heads the herd of sheep, goats or cows in search of transhumance opened new pastures between Andalusia and Teruel or between the pastures of Extremadura and the ports of León.
For three decades, Suso traveled through the ravines and cordeles of Spain, in cold or heat, sun and snow, to denounce their urbanization or invasion by agriculture or roads, and to demand the restoration of this public good for the benefit and enjoyment of the entire population. Company. That's why Suso stormed into Madrid every year, crossing the heart of the city with hundreds of sheep and goats, reminding us that we are all descended from shepherds, that transhumance is part of our collective tradition and the ancestral right of the herds over the flocks Cars for traveling.
Finally, in December of this year, UNESCO declared transhumance an intangible heritage of humanity because it “contributes to social inclusion, strengthens cultural identity and bonds between families, communities and territories”, a well-deserved recognition for the life of Jesús Garzón and the lives of the last nomads in the world, who still practice this revolutionary and ancient way of life.
There are people who leave their mark, people who don't leave. Suso will always be in every shepherd who transhumes, in every pair of scissors that sounds, and in every new voice raised in defense of wild nature and life in the free and untamed air. Rest in peace.
Juan Carlos del Olmo He is Secretary General of WWF Spain.
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