BiodiverCity: Mar Menor, the first ecosystem in Europe with legal personhood and rights

Mar Menor, the „small sea”, is not small at all, and it is very different from the Mediterranean Sea, the “Mar Mayor” (the “greater sea”). Mar Menor is the biggest coastal saltwater lagoon in the Iberian Peninsula, located near Cartagena, and La Manga del Mar Menor, occupying most of the 22 km long sandbar separating the lagoon from the sea, is one of the biggest tourist complexes of the so-called Costa Cálida. But Mar Menor has gained worldwide attention recently as the first place in Europe where a complex ecosystem has received legal personhood based on civic activism, following examples in New Zealand, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia.

Can it be the new standard of nature protection? Read the full Case Study of the BiodiverCity URBACT network, prepared based on its network meeting in Cieza, Spain, on 25-27 March 2025