Life Zaragoza Natural

Zaragoza Life Natural

Creation, management and promotion of green infrastuctures of Zaragoza

LIFE12 ENV/ES/000567

Duration

• 3 years and 4 months (from 02/09/2013 to 30/12/2016).
• The duration of the project is extended an shall run for 52 months from 02/09/2013 to 30/12/2017. The timetable of the project actions is modified

Introduction

• The main objective of the project is to protect, enhance, value, get to know and make public Zaragoza´s Green Infrastructures, which includes LIC and ZEPAS as well as the Green Belt and other natural places of interest of the Zaragoza City district, all of them of a unique value on EU scale because of its contiguity, its proximity to a big city and its outstanding conservation conditions.

Objectives

• Provide Legal and Nature Protection to Zaragoza´s Green Infrastructures.
• Enhancement of its Environmental Status, through specific and highly demonstrative interventions, as well as technical projects for a better conservation.
• Enhancement of its Connectivity and Coherence through the green matrix (forest or steppe type of natural spaces) and the blue matrix (river areas and wetlands), both within and outside the urban centre, and between them, taking advantage of the Green Belts (tracks, cattle trails, paths....) as ecological corridors.
• Increasing the Knowledge Scale and improving the appreciation of the natural areas surrounding Zaragoza on behalf of the citizens of Zaragoza.
• Transforming the surroundings of Zaragoza in a tourist resource, under the European environmental policy so as to promote "green economy", and quality tourism.

Interventions

• Administrative and legal actions aimed to legally protect the Green Infrastructure of Zaragoza (up to now non-existing as such and unrelated).
• Territorial custody actions. Network creation processes of territorial custody, in line with the existing ones in other European places, and in line with the tradition of Zaragoza´s citizen participation, particularly in environmental field.
• Green employment promotion actions. Specific activities to value the cultural heritage in some central and structured elements of the city blue matrix and development of the promotion and action plan aimed to nature tourism.
• Connectivity enhancement actions. These actions will include signposting of paths and tracks between the LIC and other wetlands, as well as river corridors, tasks related to ecological function of irrigation ditches and water distribution channels to connectivity of the intra- and extra-urban green infrastructures through signalisation and recovery of paths and tracks.
• Enhancement actions of good environment status. These actions will include four different phases.
• Environmental Studies that allows to increase the knowledge base of the very IV elements.
• Development of biodiversity and forest management plans.
• Preparing technical projects with demonstrative purposes which apply engineering techniques and sustainable management to river basins, steppes, and river shores almost all classified as LIC
• Specific physical and detailed actions, highly demonstrative, to enhance forest biodiversity and to give support to conservation of steppe fauna

Expected Results

• All green infrastructure and steppes of Zaragoza will be protected against new urban planning and a management plan will be established.
• Restoration of eight natural areas (24 hectares), including the lower Gallego river course, the steppes, the Torrero and Peñaflor Hills, the Huerva river course and the Aragon Imperial water channel.
• Refurbishment and signposting of 59 kilometres of tracks in the green rings, 8 of them inside the urban centre connecting the city parks, and giving coherence to the natural spaces of Zaragoza.
• Territorial custody agreements with cattle growers and farmers for over 3.000 hectares.
• Printing 25.000 leaflets and guides to promote the natural heritage of Zaragoza.
• Attendance to at least three specialised fairs so as to generate anew kind of tourism in the city.
• The citizens of Zaragoza will know and appreciate its singularities and values of its natural heritage by means of conferences, guided visits, fairs, exhibitions, books, and contests...
• The experience will be shared with other European cities.

Budget

CARRIED OUT ACTIONS

• Live the Bruil Park
  Activities on 06/17/2014
• Biodiversity Conference
  Key Biodiversity Conservation and Development
• Projects Presentation at the Center of  History
  the presentation of the Projects took place on May 29, 2014