Is fossil collecting legal in Spain?

[Strepsodus]

Hi. I'm going to Mallorca in a couple of months; I know of a few good sites, but I'm not sure if collecting is legal.

Is it legal or not?

Thanks,

Daniel

[Guguita2104]

I'm not an expert in fossil hunting laws, but I've seen many Spanish collectors and until now never saw/read anything saying that is illegal to search geological samples in Spain ...Let's wait for our Spanish members answers .

Regards,

[StormDancer]

Not sure of legalities of collecting in Spain..... but I am not sure of the weight limit you can bring back on the plane

[Johannes]

if you are going to collect there, it is not a problem, only if you try to export your finds please be aware of this:

Quote:

Law 13/1985 of 25 June 1985 concerning the Spanish Historic Heritage.

Royal Decree 11 l/l986 of 25 January 1986 in partial implementation of Law 16/l 985 of
25 June 1985 concerning the Spanish Historic Heritage.

1. Cultural property subject to export control

Immovables and movables of artistic, historic, palaeontological, archaeological,
ethnographic, scientific or technical interest including the documentary and
bibliographical heritage (Law, Arts. 1, 5).
Owners and possessors of such objects which are more than 100 years old or listed on
the General Inventory must have explicit and prior authorization to export (Art. 5), but
other goods may also be declared non-exportable pending the commencement of
proceedings to list them on the General Inventory (Art. 5).

2. Type of export control

Prohibition of export without a licence (Law, Art. 5). Export is subject to a tax, except
in the case of goods imported within the previous ten years (evidenced by documents),
which have not been declared to be part of the national historic heritage, temporary
export of goods which are part of the national historic heritage and export of goods of
living authors (Art. 30). The tax varies from five to 30 per cent depending on the value
of the object concerned (Art. 30).
Failure to return goods which have been authorized for temporary export is considered
to be illegal export (Art. 31).

4. Penalties and sanctions

For illegal export or breach of conditions of an export licence there is a fine of up to
100,000.000 pesetas. If damage is caused to the Spanish historic heritage in terms which
can be quantified in money, the fine is four times the damage caused (Law, Art. 76).
Forfeiture of object concerned (Law, Arts. 5, 29).

I guess the penalities are in € today, maybe a problem for some Island inhabitants in the near future...

Edited June 16, 2016 by Johannes

[Strepsodus]

Hi. Thanks for the replies. So would I need permission to take my finds home? If so does anyone know how I can get permission?

Thanks,

Daniel

[Johannes]

Yes, you need permission. And here the problem starts.

A lot of countries with restrictions in fossil export did not have a public service to give you that permission. So in Spain I can only told you about how they handle that issue the last years (as far as I know).

You get no permission the export vertebrate remains.

Amber fossils are difficult, also no permission in general.

Invertebrates of the spanish mainland are usually not a problem, maybe because of their low aceptance, maybe because of Schengen. (But things start changing)

You have to expect problems on the islands, because they are easily to watch because most of the people leave by airplane (I know people who have no problems, but I also know people who get problems with this issue at spanish airports).

But: you see the development in Europe:

Germany discuss geological objects as part of the national cultural identity (not a joke) and (plan to) put them under the strict laws for archaeological goods.

Germany and France try to sharpen EU rules regarding this topic.

Greece, Italy and Spain allready did this on a national level.

GB is maybe out of the system in some weeks.

Things we have reached in the EU for free science and culture (and collecting fossils can be culture as well as science) in the last decades were questionated.

So, as a practical hint (I guess you want to look for cretaceous heteromorph things on one of the spanish isles?): ask a local bureau for environment and toursim. But be aware that the answer might be negative. At least: everybody is responsible for his way of acting, and sometimes nobody can give you a hint how to do the best way.

Sorry that I have no clear answer or optimal suggestion.

(edit: typos)

Edited June 17, 2016 by Johannes

[Strepsodus]

Hi. Thanks for the help.

Daniel