Regulation

• In 1987 a part of the natural areas of the Llobregat delta was protected by creating a Partial Nature Reserve of Remolar-Filipines and of Ricarda-Ca l'Arana (498 hectares).
• In 1992 these protected areas, with the addition of the Murtra lagoon, joined the PEIN (Plan of Natural Interest Spaces in Catalonia); in total 518 hectares.
• In 1994 the European Community declared the protected zones of the Llobregat delta as ZEPA (Zone of Special Protection for Birds), for their ornithological value. The protected surface was expanded with the incorporation of Reguerons and a part of the Prat littoral; in total 574 hectares.
• In 2001 almost all the wetlands of the Delta were included in the Inventory of Catalonia’s Wetlands (493 hectares).
  

The last recognition of the natural values of the natural areas took place in 2006, with the expansion of ZEPA (348 hectares more were added), also with the incorporation of this area in the Catalan proposal of Red Natura 2000, and with the proposal of new Places of Community Importance (LIC); in total 923 hectares.

State / European	Self-Government
ZEPA (79/409 EEC) (923 hectares since the year 2006) Red Natura 2000 (92/43 EEC) (923 hectares)	PEIN (518 hectares)
La Ricarda-Ca l’Arana El Remolar-Filipines El Prat de Llobregat littoral Reguerons La Murtra Corredor Remolar-Reguerons Corredor Murtra-Reguerons Pine forest of Gavá New beach Ca l’Arana New flooding spaces of the river Llobregat Can Dimoni lagoons	La Ricarda-Ca l’Arana El Remolar-Filipines La Murtra
	Partial Nature Reserve (498 hectares)
	La Ricarda-Ca l’Arana El Remolar-Filipines

All these recognitions are based on the environmental relevance of the natural spaces, since they are one of the most important wetlands in Catalonia. The Llobregat delta is a space of undoubted ecological and landscape value, because of the presence of very varied habitats: coastal sandbanks, coastal pine groves, permanent lagoons, marshes, culture fields and humid meadows; because of the geographical position that it has inside the migratory route between Europe and Africa of many birds species; because of the remarkable diversity and singularity as regards the composition of flora and fauna species; and finally because of the proximity to environments extensive and intensely urbanized, a fact that grants the natural spaces of the Llobregat delta a situation of unquestionable exceptionality.

These intrinsic values concentrate on a relatively small area, near the main metropolitan cities and, therefore, submitted to a great human disturbance, a fact that grants, on the other hand, an important strategic value to this area.

The intense transformative pressure that has characterized the Delta during the whole second half of the 20th century, far from weakening, is in its most crucial moment, mainly because of the establishment of logistic and communication infrastructures of the Delta Plan (born with the agreement signed between central, autonomous and local administrations in 1994), and secondly, because of the speedy urbanization of some municipalities in the delta. It is because of this that free spaces, that is to say, natural and agricultural zones, are clearly the most fragile part of the delta mosaic, and, in consequence, the part which needs more protection.