In the silence after the general whistle you’ll be able to listen the blackbirds sing, or possibly a chaffinch or a Sardinian warbler. Or, if night time has already fallen, you might even see the bats swoop low over the middle circle because the fanatics shuffle towards the exits. This is the Spotify Camp Nou, the house of Barcelona soccer membership … but in addition of myriad creatures.
Barcelona is almost certainly the primary primary soccer membership on the planet to supply a information to its stadium’s flora and fauna, after sporting out a census of its animal occupants. The information is a part of the membership rethinking its position in the neighborhood and its environmental have an effect on, says Jordi Portabella, an environmentalist and previous candidate for mayor of town, now accountable for growing the membership’s sustainability coverage.
Portabella explains {that a} flora and fauna census used to be wanted sooner than the soccer season leads to May, when paintings will start on transforming the stadium. This will entail demolishing all the higher stand to extend capability from 99,354 to 105,000 spectators, paintings that can impact the various birds that nest there, in addition to the colony of bats.
They are taking measures to give protection to the nests as highest they are able to, says Portabella, and to ascertain new nesting spaces to make sure the birds go back when paintings is entire. Migratory species equivalent to swallows and martins were nesting at the external or throughout the roof of the stadium because it used to be in-built 1957.
“There’s a historical coexistence based on mutual respect,” says Portabella. “It’s as though the humans and the animals have come to a tacit agreement. For example, up in the stands we’re used to having bats flying around us during a match.”
The bats have made their home close to the Tribunethe seats reserved for the club president and the crème de la crème of Catalan society.
The census was carried out by a specialist company that says the site is like an oval cliff face surrounded by trees, providing a habitat for cliff-dwelling and woodland species. Thirty-four species were counted, 31 of them birds, along with two reptiles and one mammal – the bats.
The club says that scrupulous hygiene measures ensure there are no rats. Squirrels have made the odd cameo during matches but are not resident.
Among the birds, researchers found two species of swift, two martins, two types of swallow and three varieties of tit. There are also three species of parakeet, none native; they are descended from escaped pets and are now widely seen in city parks throughout Spain.
As well as urban regulars such as pigeons, gulls, starlings and magpies, the team encountered collared doves, three species of finches, pied flycatchers, firecrests, Sardinian warblers and white wagtails.
A pair of kestrels have bred in the stadium and peregrine falcons, nesting in a nearby university building, hunt around the ground. The falcons are one of only seven pairs in the city. The birds were reintroduced in Barcelona a few years ago after being driven to extinction at the end of the last century.
The two reptiles discovered are a gecko and a common wall lizard of the sort you would find on any balcony in the city in summer.
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Stadiums are unique in the urban landscape, occupying large areas in the city centre, inactive for most of the week, then interrupted by a surge of activity over a few hours when tens of thousands of fans converge, consuming large quantities of food, drink and electricity, briefly saturating public transport and the surrounding public space.
Portabella says the club is very conscious of its environmental impact and envisages what he calls the “Barça space”, converting the surrounding area, much of it a bleak concrete heat-sink in summer, into something more like a large city square, softened with trees and green spaces.
“Barça wants to be part of the solution to the problem of climate change, not part of the problem,” he says, including that the entirety from electrical energy technology, water intake and waste manufacturing is being analyzed with a view to decrease environmental have an effect on.
While few of Europe’s big clubs have fully embraced environmental change, Barça could look to the semi-professional English club Dartford FC in Kent for inspiration. A model of environmental consciousness, the roof over the stand at its Princes Park stadium (capacity 4,100) is covered in vegetation to improve insulation, electricity comes from solar panels and rainwater is collected to water the pitch, which is laid below ground level to reduce light and noise pollution.
Meanwhile, Barça has added wildlife to its boast of being “greater than a membership”. However, as soccer coaches by no means tire of repeating, what issues is what occurs at the pitch. The leisure is for the birds.
