The Castilla del oro Foundation

Natural Spaces in Spain

Madrid, September 2011

The Castilla del Oro Foundation, led by Richard Fifer-Carles and presided by Cristobal Colon in Spain, will develop a very important social labor in the Cerro del Andevalo area in Huelva.  Here is where the concern about natural spaces is born.

QUALITY MANAGEMENT OF PROTECTED AREAS

The stage of declaring protected natural spaces has given way to a new stage characterized by a greater attention to quality management and the contribution of the protected areas to the service of the environment, as well as the development of Natura 2000.  In the Europarc Yearbook – Spain are highlighted two new aspects in comparison to previous editions: the attention to the protection of the marine environment and the need for the approval of figures worldwide.

In Spain, 12.1% of the land area (a little more than 6.1 million hectares) and about 1% of the marine surface is protected for the conservation of nature.  Considering the Natura Network 2000, the protected area surpasses 14 million hectares, 28% of the land, which situates Spain as the country that brings the most surface to the European network.

In the 2008-2009 period were declared almost 100 new spaces; the great majority are small spaces, which comprise 135.000 hectares (3.756 marine).   There have also been declared as ZEC some 554.000 hectares in Canaries (184.000 marine).

Of the marine surface under national jurisdiction, almost 255.000 hectares are protected, most of them located on the coast.  Law 42/2007 included for the first time a generic figure for the protected marine areas.  To date, none have been formally declared.  Furthermore, under Law 3/2001 for the State’s Marine Fisheries, there are 10 marine reservoirs for competitive state fisheries whose main objective is to develop effective management to protect them from over fishing.

In the whole state are used over 40 different protecting figures for protected natural spaces.  The natural park figure is used for 158 spaces that total 3.7 million hectares, 54% of the total protected land.

Related posts:

1. Castilla del Oro, a virtual bridge between Panama and Spain
2. Petaquilla Meets Panamanian Environmental Standards