Since 1999, European Parks Day has been celebrated every May 24, an event promoted by the EUROPARC Federation to commemorate the declaration in 1909 of the first European national parks in Sweden. This celebration aims to bring citizens closer to protected natural areas and remember their essential value for the health of the planet and human well-being.
This year the slogan chosen is “Together with nature”, a call to recognize the importance of alliances and collaboration between people and territories to guarantee the health and resilience of protected areas in a changing world.
Protected areas, from the flora and fauna they house to the people who inhabit and care for them, make up a network of shared life. They do not depend solely on what happens within their boundaries: they are also influenced by what happens in their environment. Therefore, the collaborative approach is key to ensure their conservation and adaptation to various challenges, such as climate change.
In Spain, more than a third of the earth’s territory and 21% of the marine surface are protected. During this day, entities linked to nature conservation organize numerous activities such as guided tours, workshops, awareness days and family activities, which seek to bring citizens closer to these natural spaces and promote greater collective awareness of their value and care.
NATIONAL PARKS: EVERYONE’S NATURAL HERITAGE
National parks are natural spaces of high ecological, cultural and scientific value, little altered by human activity, which deserve special protection for their exceptional values. In Spain, this protection figure already reaches 16 parks spread over 12 autonomous communities, with a total area of 488,678 hectares.
These spaces stand out for their high degree of conservation, strategic planning and integrated management that balances conservation with public use, research and sustainable development of the territories in which they are located.
The Network of National Parks represents the greatest exponent of our country’s commitment to the protection of natural heritage, and is also an important engine for sustainable local development, helping to fix population in rural environments and generating green employment opportunities.
In this line, the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) contributes to the protection and conservation of protected natural areas by supporting various initiatives within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), financed by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
Within the framework of the 2021 call for grants for the promotion of the bioeconomy and ecological transition, the Pastored Nature initiative acts to value grazing for economic recovery, biodiversity conservation and adaptation to climate change in natural environments such as the Monfragüe National Park, in the province of Cáceres.
For its part, the GAD-EX Laboratory project, beneficiary of the 2023 call for grants for the promotion of the forest bioeconomy, contemplates the promotion of extensive livestock farming as a tool to boost the bioeconomy and the fight against rural depopulation in the territory of the Las Loras Geopark, in the provinces of Burgos and Palencia.
In addition, the Biodiversity Foundation manages a call for grants, endowed with 11.5 million euros, aimed at promoting environmental improvement in the agricultural and forestry field in the Doñana area of influence, framed in the Frameworks of Actions for this emblematic space prepared by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. and these projects will be launched in the coming months. These grants seek to promote nature-based solutions, boost the bioeconomy, generate green employment and promote the use of scientific knowledge in decision-making to achieve a fair ecological transition. The resolution of the call is scheduled for August of this year.
