Line of action:

Urban environments

Status:

En ejecución

Location:

Santiago de Compostela, La Coruña (Galicia)

Execution date:

2022

Duration:

16/09/2022 - 15/02/2025

Total budget:

€923,600.00

Amount of aid from the Biodiversity Foundation:

€877,420.00

Coordinating entity:

Council of Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela is located between the basins of the Sar and Sarela rivers, which gives the city unique natural and cultural characteristics. Large areas of riverside forest are an excellent natural resource with which to enhance the renaturalization and resilience of Santiago. The proximity of the river to the city and the progressive humanisation of the environment entails an associated risk of vulnerability to floods, loss of biodiversity or fragmentation of habitats. The City Council of Santiago has been working to correct these problems in different areas of the Sar and Sarela rivers, carrying out riverbank restoration projects, stabilization of banks and conditioning of trails to create a green ring that connects the natural spaces of the urban and peri-urban area, in search of a greener city adapted to climate change.

The area subject to the project, the Conxo Banquet Forest on the banks of the Sar River, was closed until the spring of 2018 (it belonged exclusively to the Santiago psychiatric hospital), being a botanical chest that has not had any type of management and is currently in a state of abandonment (presence of invasive vegetation, erosion of river banks, drainage of untreated water from the highway, abandoned cultural heritage elements…)

It is an area of great natural and historical value. It has tree specimens of exceptional dimensions (plane trees, alders, oaks…) among which the presence of some centenary oaks stands out, representatives of the old oak grove that surrounded the entire area. The greatest tree exponent is the Carballo de Conxo, a 250-year-old oak nominated for European tree of the Year 2022. Among them, there are abundant eucalyptus trees and other species that invade their living space.

Given the shortcomings detected, the existing natural and cultural potential, a location that would allow the connectivity of Santiago’s green areas to continue and its recent incorporation into the public sphere, has made it considered the ideal enclave for the realization of this project. A project that aims to maintain the line of work that has been carried out by the City Council of Santiago, recovery of riverbanks, resilient city and achieve connectivity between natural spaces.

The project focuses on the environmental recovery of the river ecosystem of the Banquete de Conxo Forest, in the vicinity of the Sar River, in Santiago de Compostela. It is a unique enclave with a rich natural and historical heritage that includes a population of exceptional oaks, its greatest exponent being the Carballo de Conxo (nominated for European tree of the year 2022). This place was inaccessible until 2018, because it was owned by the Conxo psychiatric hospital. This fact has led to the current state of abandonment and its ignorance by the population. ECO-BOSQUE-RIOSAR aims to return the natural functionality to the habitat and create a healthy space for environmental awareness and dissemination.

Some of the actions included in this project are:

• Inventory of natural resources.
• Hydrological study of the course and flow of the Sal River.
• Stabilization of river banks.
• Restoration of water supply.
• Recovery of the old channel of the Regato de Chaian.
• Implantation and recovery of riverside vegetation.