Demarcation of the Cañada Real de Merinas in Abenójar approved

The Regional Ministry of Sustainable Development of Castilla-La Mancha has approved the demarcation of the livestock route Cañada Real de Merinas, in the municipality of Abenójar (province of Ciudad Real), with a legal width of 75.22 meters. The resolution, signed on September 3, 2026, by the regional minister Mª Mercedes Gómez Rodríguez, is published in the Official Gazette of Castilla-La Mancha (DOCM) No. 187, of September 29, 2026, with the official reference [2026/6890].

The file is processed under Law 3/1995, of March 23, on Livestock Routes, and Law 9/2003, of March 20, on Livestock Routes of Castilla-La Mancha, which establishes the demarcation procedure in Article 13. The route is among those classified within the municipality according to the Ministerial Order of October 19, 1955, with that legal width of 75.22 meters.

A section of 17,145 meters and 128.45 hectares

The demarcated section begins where the route branches off from the Cañada Real Segoviana, on the border between Cabezarados and Abenójar, and runs from east to west to stake No. 195, the last in the municipality of Abenójar and the first in that of Saceruela. The staking work was carried out on January 27, 2025, after the surveying of 219 stakes.

The figures resulting from the file are:

• Demarcated length: 17,145 meters.
• Width: 75.22 meters.
• Demarcated area: 128.45 hectares.
• Stakes placed: 219, with even numbering on the right bank and odd on the left.
• Detected intrusions: 104.

The commissioning of the work was approved on September 28, 2023, by the General Directorate of Natural Environment and Biodiversity, funded by the Transformation and Resilience Plan, and was awarded to the public company Tragsatec. The start of the procedure was agreed upon by the Provincial Delegate of the Regional Ministry of Sustainable Development in Ciudad Real on September 25, 2024, appointing Cándido Santos Jiménez as the operating engineer. Néstor Polo Martín de Lucía, on behalf of Tragsatec, also participated in the staking.

Allegations from bordering landowners

During the staking act, bordering landowners appeared and filed allegations: CRV, representing the company Doña Inés SA, as well as MINA, FJN, and FDG. The latter, the only landowner on both sides, requested and obtained a change in the layout between stakes No. 39 and 46, returning the land to the livestock route.

During the public exhibition of the demarcation proposal, three allegations were presented:

• MCDC, upheld, as the modification was limited to a readjustment of the alignment between vertices, without altering the actual width or affecting third parties.
• MMZ, representing Doña Inés SA, dismissed.
• MINA, dismissed.

The public exhibition announcement was published in DOCM No. 89, of May 12, 2025, and the list of unidentified interested parties in BOE No. 7, of January 8, 2025, and in BOE No. 132, of June 2, 2025. The Abenójar City Council certified the exhibition on the notice board via a diligence dated September 2, 2025.

Boundary marking and restoration of the route

The resolution orders, first, to approve the boundary proposal with the UTM coordinates in the annex (zone 30, ETRS 89 reference system). Second, it stipulates that, once the boundary is approved, it shall proceed to boundary marking. And third, it orders the delineated section to be returned to its original state, removing or regularizing the 104 detected intrusions once the boundary determination becomes final.

The file received a favorable report from the General Directorate of Natural Environment and Biodiversity on July 14, 2026, and from the Legal Service of the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Sustainable Development on August 12, 2026. The maximum period for the resolution of the file is three years.

Against the resolution, which exhausts administrative remedies, a request for reversal (recurso de reposición) may be filed before the head of the Ministry of Sustainable Development within one month, or a contentious-administrative appeal may be filed before the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Castilla-La Mancha, based in Albacete, within two months.

The boundary determination definitively establishes the limits of a livestock route of more than 17 kilometers that crosses the district of Abenójar, with direct effects on the owners of the adjacent plots, the livestock farmers who traverse the route, and the land uses of the municipality. The detection of 104 intrusions anticipates restoration actions on occupied lands, while the boundary marking will provide legal certainty to a route that until now had been defined only by the 1955 classification.

Source: DOCM, No. 187 of September 29, 2026, section III (Other Provisions and Acts), p. 33131 (official reference: 2026/6890).