A total of 99 projects have been submitted to the call for grants promoted by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), with the aim of promoting the renaturalisation of urban environments. This call is part of Component 4 (conservation and restoration of ecosystems and their biodiversity) of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (RTRP) of the Government of Spain.

A total of 99 projects have been submitted to the call for grants promoted by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), with the aim of promoting the renaturalisation of urban environments. This call is part of Component 4 (conservation and restoration of ecosystems and their biodiversity) of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (RTRP) of the Government of Spain.

This call seeks to strengthen the role of nature in urban environments to increase their biodiversity and improve people’s quality of life and health. To this end, these grants aim to contribute to the development of green infrastructures and the promotion of the connectivity of green and blue spaces, through direct interventions.

All the autonomous communities, in addition to Melilla, are represented in the projects received, which are now entering a process of administrative and technical evaluation. This process will be carried out taking into account strict quality criteria of the initiatives presented.

The projects must be framed in long-term municipal strategies, promote transformative actions, lasting over time and aligned with the objectives of the call itself. In addition, they must be initiatives that promote nature-based solutions, aimed at increasing the presence of natural elements in cities and that integrate biodiversity as the backbone of interventions. In this way, it seeks to improve the diversity of habitats in cities, counting on the active participation of citizens and different social agents. It is expected that during the month of June 2022 the resolution will be produced and the initiatives can be launched, which can be developed until December 31, 2025.

This line of aid has a total endowment of 58 million euros (between 2 and 4 million per project). Provincial capitals and municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, which may have grouped with other entities and bordering municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, may be beneficiaries.

Catalonia, Andalusia, Madrid, the Valencian Community and Castilla y León are the communities that have presented the most initiatives. Given the volume of proposals received, with a total of 346 million euros requested, it is estimated that only 20% of them can be selected.

In order to continue supporting these initiatives, a call for the renaturation of urban river sections for flood risk reduction is still open, which has a budget of 75 million euros and is aimed at all Spanish local entities. A second call for the renaturalisation of cities for 62 million euros is also expected to be published in the coming months. In addition, at the Biodiversity Foundation we are working to maintain these lines of aid in the coming years.