Jordi Jon Pardo

Journalist, Documentary Photographer
 
Location: Barcelona
Nationality: Spanish
Biography: 1996, Barcelona. Focused on portraying the stories of the environment, Jordi Jon Pardo is a documentary photographer and journalist from Barcelona. He's one of the founders of MÓN, an environmental journalism organization. His interest... MORE
Private Story
Eroding Franco
Updated Jan 2022

Spain will become a desert by the end of the 21st century. 80% of its territory is prone to aridity due to desertification processes, according to Spain’s Environmental Ministry.

The environmental problem dates back to our arrival in the Iberian Peninsula (46,000 years ago), however, the gears that converted Spain into a 'desertification machine' were established during Franco’s regime and ‘Transición’ (1939-1982), with special intensity between the '60s and ‘70s in southeastern Spain, the driest region in Europe.

Francoism is usually associated with social repression but also established a state based on desertification, in which construction, agroindustry, or mass tourism were and still are essential keys for Spain's economy.

Semi-arid climate has been historically preponderant in southeastern Spain, but each concession to coastal tourism, agribusiness, damming, over-irrigation, overgrazing, abandoned quarries, rural depopulation... were proclaiming an accentuation and expansion of aridity around the peninsula, leaving a desertified future Spain.

During Franco’s time, several scientists studied ‘Spain’s desertification problems’ and their implications, but the absence of empirical information in the regime's media regarding matters of popular interest, as happens in most dictatorships, helped to legitimize this culture of desertification in favor of economic growth. The Spanish society was not well informed, while later generations inherited ignorance and culture of habitat destruction.

But how were these scientific alerts related to the current desertification state of Spain? ‘Eroding Franco’ represents a real opportunity to demonstrate a silenced past, its present consequences, and a future that is as discouraging as it is uncertain.

Also by Jordi Jon Pardo —

Story [Unlisted]

El polvo del Almanzora

Jordi Jon Pardo / Almería
Submission

Eroding Franco

Jordi Jon Pardo / Spain
Submission

Eroding Franco

Jordi Jon Pardo / Spain
Submission

The International Environmental Photography Lab - Jordi Jon Portfolio

Jordi Jon Pardo / Southern Spain and Albania
Submission

Árida

Jordi Jon Pardo / Almería
Eroding Franco by Jordi Jon Pardo
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