Spain granted personhood status Wednesday to what environmentalists call Europe's largest salt-water lagoon, which has suffered massive die-offs of marine life as it degrades due to coastal development and local farming. The new law came after a citizen-led push to provide better protection for the threatened ecosystem.
The initiative backed by more than 600,000 citizens will become law after Spain’s Senate in Madrid voted in favor of the proposal to grant the Mar Menor lagoon on Spain’s southeastern coast the status of personhood, the first time such a measure has been taken in Spain.
