Spanish environmental agent dies in fatal fall while protecting rare cliff species at cala de moraia

Cristina Gallardo Gomez, a 39-year-old environmental agent dedicated to protecting Spain’s most vulnerable ecosystems, died in a tragic fall while conducting conservation work on the dangerous cliffs above Cala de Moraia on November 25th, 2025. Despite the quick response of rescue teams, she could not be saved.

Gallardo worked as part of a specialized intervention group for the Valencian Community, trained specifically for high-risk conservation missions in places where protecting endangered species requires technical climbing skills, ropes, and unwavering determination. The steep, inaccessible cliffs where she lost her life are home to rare plants that survive precisely because few people can reach their precarious habitat. For Gallardo, such dangerous terrain represented not hazards to avoid, but responsibilities to embrace.

A trained biologist who had fought for years to establish her career in environmental protection, Gallardo once wrote that being able to “help prevent harm and care for the lands” would be deeply gratifying work. Her conservation efforts spanned multiple ecosystems and species: she protected threatened birds of prey, installed nest boxes for kestrels, helped restore barn owl populations to farmland, surveyed rare ferns and bats in cave systems, and worked to remove unauthorized climbing routes from sensitive cliff habitats.

Gallardo’s death represents the loss of a dedicated guardian who understood that preserving Spain’s wild places often means venturing into the most challenging and isolated corners of the natural world, where the rarest species make their final stands.