We are in the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve, with Arantza Ugalde Orbe, born in the Etxe-Barri farmhouse of Busturia. Urdaibai is the center of Euskera’s breathing, the refuge of popular culture and the center of nature conservation. It is located in the heart of beloved Bizkaia and is an unbeatable example of the current political and economic model.

Urbanism, water and forestry are the three strategic branches to preserve nature

It has always been the baserritarra that defended nature, and Arantza is the example of this. “Forest protection laws with the issue of the Biosphere came out more than 30 years ago,” but the peasant remembers that many of them continue to challenge the laws, “near the river or the sea, among other things”. The example is the house of the Ardanza Canal. It could not be done, but the Gautegiz-Arteaga City Council authorised it. “Through the initiative, Zain Dezagun Urdaibai moved to the courts and had to take it away, but she has not,” said the woman. In recent years, the environmental organization has denounced many illegal activities in Gaza. “Here things are going very slowly: sanitation is going slowly, aid to the baserritars, the language…”, he concludes.

He has also complained about the water conflict. The Provincial Council, the Basque Government and the leaders of the PNV in the region launched an attempt to dismantle the Busturialdea Water Consortium. Arantza makes it clear: “We can manage the waters in this region and do everything from here. But they prefer to give others to get the money out.” At the time the PNV left the Consortium in debt, among other mandates from Unai Rementeria, “and we got EH Bildu to leave it with profits.” “Citizens will have the floor in the May elections,” said former Consortium President Iratxe Arriola in an interview with Hordago.

Forestry is also closely linked to this. “It is known that it is not good that everything is pine and eucalyptus. There are plugs that do what some say from the Council, even to the detriment of everyone,” says Arantza. The current authorities have taken the wrong path: “They have always made politics for capital, both for kindness and for money.” But not everything is money. The Busturia case calls for an analysis of the options: “We have to know what is worth and who is going to work in the forests.”

Work, tourism and infrastructure are the current problems

Urbanism, water management and forestry are strategic branches. Together with them, life has completely changed, from the eyes of the peasant: “Our lands were once communal. In times of war, city councils needed money and sold the forests, privatized the large families tierras.Eran that lived for the dwelling and took care of everything in their work. They went to the forest collecting wood or taking care of the trees. The whole family had contact with the forest. But gradually people have gone out to work or have had to migrate, and that has limited your relationship with nature.”

70 per cent of the population of Busturialdea works outside the region and this has had consequences for the life of the farmhouse. “The cottage was self-stocked, you only bought fabric to make clothes and some light bulb. Everything else was produced," he says Arantza.Para that the workers of the metropolis and the summers can make light journeys “roads and tunnels must be done”. "Today's homes are drowned, roads have been made in which small movements have been possible. I'm going to take the kids to school in the village, and I'm going to work in Bilbao. Now they are villages for the summers, and for that you have to make tunnels,” he continues.

According to the authorities, these infrastructures are also intended for the tourist attraction of the area. “Instead of making tourism of little added value, we have to find other ways to attract friends: language, history, culture and nature,” said the writer Edorta Jiménez at the 5th International Congress held in Astra in 2013. Earth Week. Arantza fully agrees: “They come many and in five minutes they turn around. Nothing is prepared to show people the value of these environments, to be able to enjoy and care for them.”

The project to build the Guggenheim 2, which is once again on the table, is against sustainable roads, and it may be the currency to get the collaboration of the Gorroño brothers of Gernika for another four years (others). “They would come, see the Guggenheim, eat the sandwich or go to the restaurant, to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe and leave,” explains Arantza. Tourists often wonder what they want: "They want to have room to sleep and then be by their side." Arantza has hoped that, as few relations emerge, it will be possible to follow the wrong path.

Organic farming beyond the trade fair: home baskets and school canteens

Arantza participates in the Busturia Ecological Fair. In the past, a decision was taken with the baserritarras union EHNE: “We started to inform ourselves to keep the land clean, so that our elders could more easily recover the semester changes and treatments they did.” People started to make organic farming, and 18 years ago the fair was launched to sell production with premium products necesidad.Se gradually spread. Today the ecological fairs have their problems, “not because they are more expensive, because they are not, our lands are cleaner and the product is better, but the farmer has not been monitored, and the institutions have put in too many difficulties and lack of help”

They started distributing baskets, and now they're coming to school canteens. “There are two pilot initiatives in Gernika.” Arantza considered it necessary to strengthen the initiative of schools and to open new avenues. In the region where 45,000 people live, “how many work on land? How many farmers do you need to feed them all?” he asks. All the land should be put to work, “but of course, the big shops do nothing but harm, and many shops bring the fruits of Mercabilbao.”

As in Busturia, they are about to renovate public school kitchens. Many parents want to take stock of local agriculture, but contracts limit the possibilities. "The parents care, and the goal is to use and maintain the lands, because many of the lands in our region are still not contaminated," says Arantza. They have administrative problems and difficulties in getting papers. "From all universities, governments and institutions, we have to endure the conditions of those who have high salaries and have no contact with the earth," he says. The baserritarra says they're going to go on anything.

Using the value of the Basque

Besides caring for nature and being responsible for food production, the transmission of culture and language is one of the keys to peasant culture. “Work and language are related. What work you have, you change your language trend,” says Arantza. He believes that we are giving less and less importance to our language. "We have been teaching people for years, but from the institutions they don't help, they do as if they were in favor but don't really care," says Arantza, a former AEK professor.

The Basque language has gone from being a domestic and street language to the current university classrooms, and in scientific and cultural expression the increase of the language also stands out. How can we achieve the hegemony of Euskera in the present and future of our people? “Use, use and use” is the road map of Arantza to build the hegemony of the Basque Country today. “Teach the people that are worth it. It serves to laugh and cry. It serves to fall in love and live. It serves on the street and inside the house. It serves in the farmhouse and on the mountain. Valid everywhere. We have to make Euskera attractive to all citizens.”

Hope for change

Organize urbanism, care for forests, water and nature, transform agriculture and spread Euskera. Is there hope? We will have to demolish the current leaders and go another way, and we are already there. Arantza is optimistic, but sometimes he says he gets pessimistic, “seeing the textshafts that are in this area.” “Half of Basque citizenship will always be in struggle and will always be in the struggle to maintain its culture, language and character,” he says with hope.

This report has been published by El Salto - Hordago and we have brought it to ARGIA thanks to the Creative Commons free licenses.