Galicia and Portugal are going to promote a training course for public personnel in the development of green infrastructures within the Poctep Green Gap project, presented today. During her speech, the second vice-president and conselleira of Environment, Ángeles Vázquez, explained that the Green Gap project (Promotion of Local Green Infrastructures for Biodiversity Restoration, Renaturalization and Climate Resilient Landscape Design in Urban and Rural Areas) aims to help local administrations to play a greater role in the promotion of green infrastructures.
In this line, he added that the partners participating in this initiative, led by the Instituto de Estudos Territoriais (IET), an entity dependent on the Second Vice-Presidency and the Regional Ministry of Environment, Territory and Housing, in addition to launching the Escola Galego-Portuguesa de Infra-estruturas Verdes, will prepare four strategic planning documents and develop seven projects in this area.
The objective is to facilitate the training of local and provincial government officials in the development of a green infrastructure strategy, said Ángeles Vázquez, who recalled that this measure has acquired a prominent role in land use planning, policy and research in recent years.
The Second Vice-President stressed that green infrastructure is one of the main instruments for ensuring the preservation of biodiversity and strengthening the resilience of territories in the face of climate change. It will also have an impact on the quality of life for the neighborhood due to the economic, ecological and social benefits it brings.
Thus, after explaining that Galicia is finalizing its strategy for green infrastructure connectivity and ecological restoration, Ángeles Vázquez stressed the value of the combined efforts of this cross-border collaboration to advance the achievement of common goals.
In fact, this initiative, which has a budget of more than 2.1 million euros, financed within the framework of the Interreg Spain-Portugal Program (POCTEP 2021-2027), involves, in addition to the IET, several local entities, supra-municipal administrations with competences in the field and university entities of the Galicia-North Portugal Euroregion.
On the Galician side, the University of A Coruña, the City Council of Pontevedra, the Provincial Council of Ourense and the CEER Foundation are participating in the project, while on the Portuguese side the City Council of Paredes de Coura, the University of Minho, the City Council of Guimarães, the Landscape Laboratory of Guimarães, as well as the Portuguese Environment Agency and the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests are participating in the project.
