- The vice-president visited the Besós River Biodiversity Refuge and the Conecta Congost Natura 2025 project
The Vice President of the Government and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, visited this Wednesday the Catalan municipalities of Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Granollers, where she had the opportunity to learn about the Besós River Biodiversity Refuge and the Conecta Congost Natura 2025 project. Both are city renaturalization projects supported by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), through the Biodiversity Foundation, and financed by the European instrument Next Generation EU.
“This great PRTR program of renaturalization of urban parks, looking at how to go about building biodiversity connectors in urban space is an example of success,” Ribera pointed out. “We have been able to see how nature is conquering that space again and how it is a very positive tool from the point of view of citizen mood: neighbors like to feel identified with a city with living ecosystems,” he added.
BESÓS RIVER BIODIVERSITY REFUGE
First, the minister visited the facilities of the Besós River Biodiversity Refuge, in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a project that aims to renaturalize the Besós River Park. On a large scale, it is intended to generate an ecological connector between two protected natural areas, Collserola and the Serralada de Marina, aiming to act on a total area of 134,875 m2.
The objectives of this project, which has a budget of 3,217,385.49 euros, 95% of which comes from the Biodiversity Foundation (3,056,516.22 euros), range from environmental regeneration to the recovery of the flora and fauna of the area, including the removal of invasive exotic species and raising public awareness.
CONNECTS CONGOST NATURA 2025 IN GRANOLLERS
Afterwards, the vice-president travelled to Granollers, where she was able to see the current status of the Conecta Congost Natura 2025 project. This is, once again, a renaturalization project, in this case focused on the Congost river, one of the main green axes of the city. Thanks to the renaturalization of the area, the residents of the Primer de Maig neighborhood will benefit from the creation of a superblock, with more renaturalized areas close to their homes that will favor social life and help mitigate the high temperatures on hot days.
This is a very complete project whose combination of renaturation actions with the reorganization and reduction of traffic, eliminating asphalt roads and relocating parking areas, will generate a greater impact on health. It has a total budget of 3,541,225.17 euros, 95% of which comes from the Biodiversity Foundation (3,364,163.91 euros), and 4.5 hectares are expected to benefit from it.
RENATURALIZATION OF CITIES
The facts have shown that distancing nature from the urban environment translates into economic, health and quality of life costs. At the same time, the rate of population concentration in large cities has intensified. According to the United Nations, 56% of the world’s population currently lives in urban areas, while in Spain this percentage rises to 80%.
Therefore, it is essential to work on reinforcing the role of nature in the city as an ally of the new urban models, which would translate into the concept of renaturalization. It implies a paradigm shift in which natural processes repair and restore landscapes degraded by human action, through a nature-based solutions approach.
