Biosphere reserves, natural parks, national parks... More than a third of our land surface (36%) has some type of protection, making Spain the number one country in Europe in this field. We are also the country with more Biosphere Reserves (52) and Geoparks (15) of the planet.
With the aim of valuing these territories, the campaign has just been born Our Protected Spaces, an initiative of the Global Nature Foundation in collaboration with the forum EUROPARC-Spain and the Ecotourism Association in Spain.
The proposal was born from the verification of a paradox, as explained by its coordinator, Ignatius Jimenez: “On the one hand, Spain is the most biodiverse country in Europe and the one with largest land area protected of the continent. These protected areas are not only essential to preserve our natural heritage, but also offer unique employment and income opportunities for rural communities, are sources of health and well-being for millions of visitors, they are essential in the climate change mitigation and house unique historical and cultural resources.
One of the challenges is to make society aware of the importance of maintaining and caring for these spaces.
“The paradox is that the great part of our population ignores these facts: “Spanish society does not seem to be aware of this. The majority of the urban population is unaware of our protected areas or takes them for granted, while a large part of the rural population regards them with suspicion. The result is that we Spaniards lack a sense of pride in relation to a crucial issue for our quality of life in which, moreover, we are at the head of Europe”.
“While we take pride in our cuisine, our history and our athletes, we are barely aware of the rich natural and cultural heritage that is cared for and accessible thanks to these protected spaces. Therefore, the main objective of our campaign is to publicize in a close and effective way the great diversity of values and benefits associated with these spaces” he points out.
Ignacio Jiménez, coordinator of the Protected Spaces program and spokesperson for the Global Nature Foundation.
One of the great challenges of the campaign is, therefore, raise awareness in society on the importance of maintaining and caring for these spaces.
Ignacio assures that the first thing “is know and recognize the enormous variety and richness of the protected spaces that exist in our country, and then explain the environmental, economic, cultural and health benefits that they generate. Without this, nobody is going to worry about taking care of them properly.”
“Once society gives the same importance to these 'natural cathedrals' that we give to buildings like Burgos Cathedral either The Alhambra , it will be the responsibility of public administrations at multiple scales, companies, foundations and citizens to take care of and enjoy this rich natural and cultural heritage. Nothing prevents us from feeling proud and taking care of our protected spaces as other countries do or as we do with our most emblematic architectural heritage”.
Rabbits in the Laguna del Hito Nature Reserve (Cuenca).
In this sense, the initiative seeks promote ecotourism as a tool conservation of biodiversity and contribution to local development. And it is that, more than the future, ecotourism is already our present:
“It is a type of tourism focused on the respectful enjoyment of natural spectacles generating environmental, social and economic benefits in the areas where it develops. It is the type of tourism that is growing the fastest in the world and the one that offers the best opportunities to many sparsely populated and not so accessible rural areas of our country.”
High Tagus.
“While Spain is clearly a powerhouse in terms of mass tourism, it clearly still has enormous potential to be developed when it comes to promoting quality ecotourism. In this context, protected areas and the communities that live in them must simultaneously serve as attractions and beneficiaries for this potential to materialize”, indicates the coordinator.
One of the first actions of the Our Protected Spaces campaign has been your presentation video, narrated by actress Adriana Ozores on a good number of plans that show us the variety and landscape quality of our country.
Minorca Biosphere Reserve.
The main commitment is to spread it over the Internet: "Our campaign is fundamentally based on the use of social networks that are widely used as Youtube, Facebook or Instagram. It's the best we can do with the resources we have!”
"The idea is attract media interest making quality products and transmitting inspirational messages for them to share these stories and make them reach Spanish society in general. The important is tell a story that is of broad interest and encourage others to join and share it. This is a campaign that we think can and should be general public interest, that is why we have joined several institutions to push it, ”he confesses.
Els Ports Natural Park.
The campaign will continue with a good number of audiovisual pieces: “Currently the three social networks are fully functional under the name of Our Protected Spaces. In the middle of January we started with a series of short videos titled 'Protected Lives'. In these videos we show people who live in protected spaces of all kinds and who tell us how these spaces benefit them”.
“Every week an episode will come out and in them appear ranchers, a fisherman, a mayor, an NGO technician, a nun, a child, a couple of wine growers, etc. What we want is for the public to see that protected areas are not just places with 'animals and plants for tourists and environmentalists to visit', but that they are the basis of the well-being of thousands of people who care for them, work and benefit from them”. Tourism will be sustainable or it will not be.
High Tagus.