The Secretary of State for the Environment, María García Rodríguez, has announced that this year Spain will have a State Strategy for Green Infrastructure and Ecological Connectivity and Restoration, which is currently in the process of being drawn up, “a regulatory instrument that will ensure that biodiversity and ecosystem services of the territory as a whole are integrated into territorial and sectoral planning”. he detailed.
The Secretary of State participated, this morning, at the headquarters of the European Commission in Madrid, in a conference organized by the NGO WWF on ecological corridors, in which the Director General of the Environment of the European Commission, Daniel Calleja, and the Secretary General of WWF, Juan Carlos del Olmo, also participated.
García Rodríguez pointed out that the objective of the State Green Infrastructure Strategy is to set the guidelines to identify and conserve the elements that make up the green infrastructure of the Spanish territory, terrestrial and marine, in order to be able to plan, territorially and sectorally, by public administrations, the actions that ensure ecological connectivity and the functionality of ecosystems.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and the Environment is preparing it in collaboration with other ministries, Autonomous Communities and municipalities, for which a working group has been created, “in order to make it a consensual state strategy, which allows us to comply with the provisions of the Law on Natural Heritage and Biodiversity and incorporate the concept of green infrastructure into our legal system”, Explained.
ENSURING THE CONNECTION OF PROTECTED AREAS
Spain, as the EU has recognised in its latest assessment reports, has made progress in the protection of its habitats and the recovery of species. “We are the most biodiverse country in Europe,” García Rodríguez stressed, hosting 56% of the birds included in the Birds Directive, 51% of the Habitats and 32% of the remaining species in the annexes of the Habitats Directive, in addition to having 2,100 spaces with some form of protection.
The Secretary of State, in any case, has been aware of the importance of connecting the spaces that are already protected in isolation to increase the conservation of their biodiversity. “Although the fragmentation of habitats is less pronounced in Spain, from the perspective of biodiversity conservation it is important to facilitate the dispersal and transit of species, the migration of populations and genetic exchange,” he said. “Policies that are decisive for the well-being of the population, such as water, agriculture, energy or transport, cannot cause a barrier effect,” he added.
The Government, in any case, while it finishes finalising this global national strategy, continues to make progress on specific connectivity projects, stressed the Secretary of State for the Environment.
