In the National Park of Ordesa & Monte Perdido canyoning was prohibited about 7 years ago because the park authorities were not (and still are not) sure of the ecological impacts of the sport on the aquatic environment.
Like I mentioned earlier, some prettty confusing studies have been made, contradicting each other. To play safe they just banned almost anything: all aquatic activities, mtb, paragliding, skiiing etc.
The park has the highest standard of protection possible for a natural environment (being placed on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage), basically all you can do there is walk and look, nothing else.
Interestingly, the ban on canyoning isn’t really a ban on the sport, but a ban on swimming, so if you would like to step in a hornet’s nest: go ahead and do a dry canyon and challenge the park authorities !
I would not recommend doing this because there are so many canyons outside the park, this just seems ridiculous.
Apart from the strict rules of the park, some other canyons are off-limits for a few months each year, because of vultures, eagles and other feathered friends nesting. Again, no problem because these are only a hand-full and plenty of others remain.
In our region we are safeguarded from an outright ban on canyoning because of the huge economical importance of the sport, whole villages depend on canyoning for the moment and the Spanish government goes to (sometimes quite absurd) lenghts to keep local population from abandoning their villages and moving to the cities.
In France, a lot of canyons were closed because of protest by fishermen (locals, thus voters). The canyoneers being from outside had little impact on the local councils and thus lost their case.
If I may put it (very carefully): some of the guides brought this on themselves ! Why ? Let me picture a situation: at this one canyon, you see daily groups arriving to go canyoning on the territory of community X. At the end of this canyon, you find some local bars, a restaurant, hostal etc. You would expect the guides and their clients downing a few after a perfect day in the mountains – but no, everybody jumps in their cars and off they go. As you can imagine this makes the local shopkeepers not very happy and I know some of them have asked the mayor to tax entry to the canyon. . . who can blame them ?
Acces to canyons is all about influence where it counts: on protected lands it lies with park authorities, on private land it lies with the owners or the town hall.
If I can offer some advice to all canyoners who use public lands: do your shopping in the local groceries, get yourself and the bar-owners drunk, spend a few nights in the local hotels and explain to these people why you’re there (and spending your money. . .). They will be the ones who will ultimately represent you at the town council !
And apart from all this, behave: try not do disturb nature, wildlife and fishermen, say hello, talk to them, offer them drinks in bars – it’s amazing how much hostility comes from not knowing each other.
Happy canyons,
Koen