Chapters authored
Biological Conservation and Nature Protection Strategies in Spanish Atlantic Region
Despite the fact that the loss of biodiversity continues to be an unresolved problem at a global level, it is possible to identify new alternatives and initiatives in biodiversity conservation. From the environmental strategic framework created worldwide, an important World Network of Biosphere Reserves has been implemented under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, which in the European Union in general, and in Spain in particular, is strongly interrelated with Natura 2000 network that is created under Directive 92/43/EEC. In the present work, the importance of the Spanish Atlantic region for biodiversity is assessed, contextualizing the networks of protected areas created in this territory and valuing the created synergies that have favored the start-up of projects and agreements aimed at reducing the loss of biodiversity and achieving sustainability.
Part of the book: Selected Studies in Biodiversity
Galician Atlantic Islands National Park: Challenges for the Conservation and Management of a Maritime-Terrestrial Protected Area
At present, biodiversity conservation and management in Spanish National Parks in Spain must respond to a series of regulations at a European, national and regional level, also adapting to scientific-technical progress. The availability of increasingly precise data on the values to be conserved (ecosystems, habitats, species, geodiversity) in these protected areas enables more detailed management, but also requires more rigorous, powerful, and multidisciplinary tools. Maritime-terrestrial national parks are highly sensitive areas to public use, so their impact must be one of the most important factors to take into account when planning their management. This work evaluates the past and present challenges for conservation in Galician Atlantic Islands National Park (NW Spain), where biodiversity conservation and management has evolved over time in a significant way, providing a valid case study applicable to other national parks worldwide, as well as similar situations in other contexts and scenarios. Future challenges are arising in the National Park to improve the conservation status of natural habitats and wildlife, mainly through new European initiatives that may establish important synergies with other countries.
Part of the book: Protected Area Management
Protecting Wetlands: Insights from the Northern Iberian Peninsula (Galicia, NW Spain)
Wetlands are a key tool for environment conservation policy. They harbour important biodiversity values such as priority habitats and fragile species, reduce the impacts of floods, improve water quality, absorb pollutants, and protect shores from climate change effects, also acting as carbon reservoirs in the medium and long term. From an international point of view, those sites containing representative, rare or unique wetlands, are designated under Ramsar Convention, which was signed in 1971, being added to the Convention’s List of Wetlands of International Importance and become known as Ramsar sites. More than 50 years after the signing of Ramsar Convention, its degree of application is very uneven across the different territories. This paper analyses the situation from the Atlantic area of the Iberian Peninsula, and specifically from Galicia, a territory that has a large number of wetlands, both terrestrial, marine, underground and artificial, with sites of high value for biodiversity and natural heritage conservation, but where there is no adequate protection over them, documented by the presence of a large number of anthropic impacts that is leading to biodiversity deterioration, habitat destruction and species decline.
Part of the book: New Insights Into Protected Area Management and Conservation Biology