Barcelona raises wooden fences around trash bins against wild boars

The intervention has affected the mountainous districts of the Catalan capital

The City of Barcelona has installed special wooden enclosures around 22 trash container sites in some of its highland districts. The reason is to prevent wild boars from roaming through the garbage and creating a nuisance.

The enclosed trash containers are found in the Vallvidrera, Tibidabo and Les Planes neighbourhoods. The intervention follows a successful pilot project that was carried out in 2022 with three enclosures to determine whether they could stop the animals from knocking over the containers and spilling the trash around the site.

European cities and wild boars

This initiative is part of the Barcelona municipal strategy to improve the public space of the mountainous neighbourhoods, which includes different interventions such as clearing, training the neighbourhood residents not to feed the wild boars and other interventions to complicate the animals' access to food.

The points where the enclosures are placed are spaces where a greater concentration of wild boars and a greater collection of garbage have been detected – the latter being one of the elements likely to attract the animals' attention. The council's strategy also involves clearing bushes near the containers.

The wooden fences were an upgrading step after the placements of bars and anchors on the containers had been deemed insufficient.

The Catalan capital has become the latest European city to be forced to find ways to deal with the increasing population and encroachment of wild boars into the urban areas.

It is well known that other European major cities have also been struggling with an invasion of wild boars, attracted by the better availability of food on the urban streets. This, however, has led to a decrease in the sense of security for residents inhabiting said streets.