[1] As well as having national park status, the site enjoys international recognition, being: Like other Spanish wetlands, the Tablas de Daimiel had a long tradition of waterfowl hunting.

As early as 1325 the infante Don Juan Manuel, in his hunting book (Libro de la caza), publicised the attributes of the banks of the river Gigüela for falconry.

Although in the 1950s the government promoted land reclamation projects in La Mancha with the aim of reducing the amount of wetland, Franco shot duck in the area and in 1966 the Tablas became a National Hunting Reserve.

In 1982 Las Tablas were included on the list of the Ramsar Convention (an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands).

The wetland landscape is characterized by recurrent seasonal inundation which until recently was maintained by both river flooding and groundwater discharges.

We may find the European freshwater crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes), that it was in the past abundant and an important source of income for Daimiel's families, today almost extinguished in these waters.

[7][8] Faced with a possible fine from the EU, the Spanish Environment ministry presented in 1995 a transfer project (an aqueduct and miles of pipes between the Tagus and the Mancha Húmeda) to bring water to the upper Guadiana basin.

Firstly because it assumed that the two depleted aquifers had no chance of recovering, and it chose the easy and cheaper immediate solution with no account taken of future water resources.

Various ecological groups have suggested that the national park's designation as a biosphere reserve (within Mancha Húmeda) should be withdrawn as its ecosystem has been broken.

In June 2008, a UNESCO report recommended that the national park lose its biosphere status or, alternatively, that Spain be given an ultimatum to reverse the degradation.

However, analysis later showed that there will be no notable improvement in the situation without considerably reducing the surface area of irrigated cereals while maintaining the same surface area of traditional crops suited to arid conditions (agricultura de secano in Spanish) and horticulture (the latter being the most efficient crop in terms of extended water footprint).

Developments in the local economy will also influence the outcome, with factors such as solar electricity, ecotourism, better quality agricultural products, and environmental services (carbon sinks for example).