In the Mesas de Asta area, a stretch of 36 hectares located in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), Ebro Foods has developed a landscape restoration project for the sedimentation basins of a former sugar factory in conjunction with the Regional Government of Andalusia.

Before the factory was installed there, the land made up an inlet of the estuary of the Guadalquivir River which flooded and created extensive marshland. This parameter has been taken into account when tackling the project, which is of great environmental value, with the goal of creating an aquatic, functional and diverse ecosystem for the birds, by creating a wetlands areas, to be called the Mesas de Asta Marshes.

The results for biodiversity have been a success for aquatic birds, which have experienced a significant boost in both number of species and abundance of specimens. Reproductive birds have grown from 99 specimens in 2005 to 1,330. In the case of overwintering birds, birds which emigrate from the cold of northern Europe to our country, the number has risen from 1,243 in 2011 to 2,245. As regards the wealth of species, reproductive birds have increased from 14 to 18 and overwintering bird species from 22 to 31. The species which are populating the wetlands include the gull-billed tern (Gelochelidon nilotica) –75% of the total number of these birds in Andalusia reproduce on this spot; the slender-billed gull (Larus genei); and the Mediterranean gull (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus).