Greenpeace protesting against hotel construction in Spanish nature reserve

A group of 30 Greenpeace activists set up a protest camp Wednesday at a hotel construction site in a nature reserve in southern Spain, a spokeswoman said.

Twenty of the campaigners planned to spend the night at the camp on a beach where a luxury hotel is being built. Greenpeace says the beach is meant to be protected.

Activists placed large banners on the hotel.

The protest took place at Algarrobico beach, within the Cabo de Gata nature reserve near the port city of Almeria.

Almeria is one of the driest regions of Spain, with semi-desert conditions and flora and fauna adapted to extremely dry conditions. Many environmental groups maintain that building golf courses in such naturally dry terrain makes inappropriate use of scarce water resources, the AP reports.

This year Spain endured the driest summer since record-keeping began. A.M.