- Ángeles Vázquez stresses that green infrastructure is one of the main tools to ensure the preservation of biodiversity and to strengthen the resilience of territories in the face of climate change.
- The Green Gap initiative, which has a budget of more than €2.1 million, involves a group of local entities, supra-municipal administrations with competencies in this area and university organizations in the Euroregion.
Galicia and Portugal will promote a training action to train public personnel for the development of green infrastructure in the framework of the Poctep Green Gap project, whose presentation day was attended this morning by the second vice-president and Regional Minister of Environment, Territory and Housing, Ángeles Vázquez.
During her speech, the second vice-president explained that the Green Gap project “Promotion of Local Green Infrastructures for the Restoration of Biodiversity, Renaturalization and Design of a Climate Change Resilient Landscape in Urban and Rural Areas of Galicia-North Portugal” aims to help local administrations to play a more relevant role in the promotion of green infrastructures in the cross-border area.
In this line, he advanced that the partners participating in this initiative, led by the Institute of Territorial Studies (IET), an entity under the Second Vice-Presidency and Regional Ministry of Environment, Territory and Housing, in addition to launching the Galician-Portuguese School of Green Infrastructure, will prepare four strategic planning documents and develop seven projects on this subject.
“The objective is to facilitate the training of public workers of local and provincial administrations in the development of a green infrastructure strategy,” said Ángeles Vázquez, who recalled that this measure has acquired in recent years a prominent role in land management, policy and research.
In addition, the second vice-president stressed that green infrastructure is one of the main tools to ensure the preservation of biodiversity and to strengthen the resilience of territories in the face of climate change. It will also have an impact on the quality of life in the neighborhood due to the economic, ecological and social benefits it brings.
Thus, after explaining that Galicia is finalizing its Strategy for green infrastructure and ecological restoration connectivity, Ángeles Vázquez valued the sum of efforts involved in this cross-border collaboration in order to move forward in achieving common goals.
In fact, this initiative, which has a budget of more than 2.1 M€, financed within the framework of the Interreg Spain – Portugal Program (POCTEP 2021-2027), involves, in addition to the IET, a group of local entities, supra-municipal administrations with competences in this area and university organizations of the Galicia-North Portugal Euroregion.
On the Galician side, the University of A Coruña, Pontevedra City Council, Ourense Provincial Council and the CEER Foundation are participating, while on the Portuguese side, the project involves the Chamber of Paredes de Coura, the University of Minho, the Chamber of Guimarães, the Landscape Laboratory of Guimarães as well as the Portuguese Environment Agency and the Institute for the Conservation of Forest Nature (Instituto de Conservação da Conservação da Naturaleza das Florestas).
