Since 2011, with the creation of a Working Group within the Governing Board of the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park, this Territorial Delegation has promoted the drafting of a "Sustainable Mobility Plan in the P.N. Cabo de Gata-Níjar". This has been supported by an accredited external consultant and an expert member of this participatory body.
The Natural Resources Management Plan (PORN) and the Master Plan for the Use and Management of the Natural Park of Cabo de Gata-Níjar are an effective instrument for the implementation of the Andalusian environmental policy structured through the Environment Plan of Andalusia. The strategies of these plans are materialized through a series of criteria and guidelines, included in this section, as well as through the establishment of specific regulations for space, detailed in the PORN and PRUG.
The Governing Council of the Junta de Andalucía approved on October 5, 2010, the Andalusian Integrated Management Strategy of Geodiversity. In this way, Andalusia becomes the first Spanish Autonomous Community to have a road map aimed at the conservation and sustainable use of this exceptional natural heritage.
The Strategy constitutes a frame of reference aimed at guaranteeing the conservation of geodiversity, through the implementation of a specific program of measures designed for this purpose, which also includes the establishment of coordination and cooperation mechanisms among the participating actors. in some way in its management. It also aims to promote the role of geological heritage as a socio-economic asset for the sustainable development of the territory.
Currently, the Unesco Global Geopark of Cabo de Gata-Níjar participates in numerous projects:
- Life AdaptaMed: consists of the protection of ecosystem services in three representative spaces such as Cabo de Gata-Níjar, Doñana and Sierra Nevada, in the face of the effects of climate change. This protection is carried out through the development of adaptive management measures.
Climate change is one of the main problems facing these protected areas and the goods and services they provide. Through adaptive management measures, which involve the management of habitats, to increase their resistance and resilience to the effects of climate change and other disturbances, the aim is to improve the capacity for the provision of goods and services. Life AdaptaMed is a project with a marked component of social service. More information: www.lifeadaptamed.eu. - Co-Adpata: social learning and co-production of knowledge for the conservation of the azufaifar (Priority Habitat 5220) and the services it provides in the face of Climate Change. The objective of the project is to develop processes of co-learning and co-production of knowledge among researchers, managers and social actors for the conservation of the jujube, a priority habitat dependent on groundwater, threatened by climate change and responsible for the provision of services key ecosystems in arid areas.
Throughout the Co-Adapta project, 96 people from the field of science, management and society (belonging to 37 public / private institutions / entities) have worked together in the creation of a Climate Change Route in the Geopark of Gata-Níjar so that society knows the effects of climate change through the Ziziphus lotus. More information - Dunes! Integrating research and citizen participation for the conservation of Coastal Systems: the purpose of the project is, through a close collaboration between researchers and the citizens themselves, to raise awareness and awareness of the importance of the conservation of dynamic-complex living systems that constitute the coastal dunes of this maritime-terrestrial space of Cabo de Gata, at the same time that it contributes to scientific knowledge about the state of these systems, with the intention of promoting an adaptive development model based on sustainability and scientific knowledge transfer. More information.
- Act4Litter: Interreg Med funded project aiming to facilitate efforts for tackling marine litter in Mediterranean MPAs through effective and targeted measures towards reaching their conservation targets. More information: act4litter.interreg-med.eu/.
- Life Blue Natura: the main objectives of this project are to quantify carbon deposits and sequestration rates of seagrass beds and tidal marsh habitats in Andalusia, with emphasis on what accumulates in their soils and to analyze the evolution of the same in the next decades. The marine bottoms of the Geopark of Cabo de Gata-Níjar harbor one of the best masses of oceanic Posidonia in the whole Mediterranean. More information: life-bluenatura.eu/en/home/.
Photographer: Ernesto Murcia Sánchez
Through the last years, different actions have been taken:
- Maintenance and improvement of public use equipments as paths, visitors centers, information pannels...
- Installation of wooden fences to protect habitats and geological outcrops At Los Muertos Beach, Embarcadero Beach and Rambla Morales.
- Technical proposals to be included in the Regional Action Programme “Conservation of Dunes, Beaches and Coastal Cliffs”.
- Cooperation with the competent authorities in mine action related to the reclamation of abandoned bentonite quarries that are required to restore by the Spanish law.