Rightwing MPs in southern Spain have ignored protests from the central government, the EU, Unesco and several ecological groups by voting to grant an amnesty to illegal strawberry farmers who have been tapping water from the aquifer that feeds one of Europe’s largest protected wetlands, The Guardian reports.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Andalucían regional parliament approved the proposal, which will “regularise” 1,461 hectares (3610 acres) of land near the Doñana national park, thereby allowing farmers who have sunk illegal wells and built illicit plantations on the land to legitimise their operations.

The controversial proposal was brought by the conservative People’s party (PP), which governs the region, and backed by the centre-right Citizens party and the far-right Vox party. The regional branch of Spain’s ruling Socialist Workers’ party abstained, while its national coalition partner, Unidas Podemos, opposed the move.

The regional president, Juan Manuel Moreno of the PP, has defended the planned legislation, claiming it would allow the authorities to more closely monitor the tapping that has been going on for years.

“No one should think that we’re going to erode our natural jewels by as much as a millimetre,” Moreno said last month. “We’re going to protect it because that’s what the law tells us to do, and because that’s what we want to do.”

Such comments, however, have done little to convince opponents of the plan.

SEO BirdLife, the Spanish ornithological society, described Wednesday’s vote as “another step towards Doñana’s extinction”, while WWF Spain said it would use all the resources at its disposal to fight “this mortal blow to the already over-exploited aquifer that gives Doñana life”.