Enhancing Landscape through Green Infrastructure
The Institute of Territorial Studies collaborated with stakeholders in a hybrid meeting in Santiago de Compostela to enhance landscape management tools related to Areas of Special Landscape Interest, landscape quality objectives and monitoring indicators. Attendees included regional and local administration officials, businesses, environmental and forestry groups, forest communities, Galician development associations, biosphere reserves, research centres and universities.
In particular, the participants were Galician Agrarian Guarantee Fund -FOGGA, Galician rural development agency -AGADER, the Regional Department of Natural Heritage, the Innovation of the Forest Industries Agency of Galicia - XERA, the councils of Ames and Lugo, Viratec, Foresin, Ecoplanin, Viforsa, Galician Forestry Association, LugoMadera, the Community of Montes of Celas de Peiro, Agronomic Engineering Foundation -FIA, Seitura 22, the Biosphere Reserve “Mariñas Coruñesas e Terras do Mandeo”, as well as that of “Ancares Lucenses e Montes de Cervantes, Navia e Becerreá”, the Lourizán Research Centre, University of Santiago de Compostela and University of A Coruña.
The meeting aimed to advance proposals for the integration of green infrastructure in landscape policy, highlighting, among other issues addressed, the need to merge sectoral policies to achieve effectiveness and increase public awareness about the benefits of nature.
Various experiences were presented that could benefit Galicia's objective in the project. The Good Practices exposed must be highlighted; Alfredo Fernández Ríos (deputy general director of Relations with Rural Development Groups -Agader) spoke about Model Villages, as a refererence of sustainable use of a space – the village; Patricia Reboreda Cigarrán (environmental technician of the Ames City Council) presented the reforestation with native species in secondary fire protection strips, reducing the risk of fire and promoting biodiversity and Mercedes Rois Díaz (director of Innovation of the Forest Industries Agency of Galicia, showed the exemplary management of the multifunctionality of Monte Couso and the improvement of biodiversity and local populations that promotes the FSC certification of forest management in A Devesa da Rogueira.
Specifically, the Ames City Council, since 2017, has implemented a practice of planting hardwoods in the 50-meter safety strips to fight forest fires, facilitating management and improving the biodiversity loss, landscape and soil degradation. The effectiveness of model villages, carried out by AGADER, in recovering agricultural land, addressing economic, environmental and social aspects, was analysed.
XERA presented FSC forestry certification initiatives that involve areas with high-value tree species in Devesa da Rogueira, a sustainable management, improving ecosystem services, as well as others actions related to the multifunctionality of the forest, in Monte Couso.
All participants were encouraged to identify other good practices in Galicia and to design the pilot action jointly in the next year, emphasizing a "learning by doing" approach to evaluate the achieved improvements.
In the upcoming months, the project timing includes Galicia and Fryslân (the Netherlands) advising Zagreb on policy improvement within the GIFT project, emphasizing partner-based learning.