Corrubedo: 14 years for Xunta de Galicia, 15 days for the citizens

SGHN requests that the draft decree be discarded, thus the PORN (Natural resources management plan) is modified and the PRUX (Master plan for uses and management) of the Dunes of Corrubedo Natural Park is approved (see PDF).

The existing PORN of the Corrubedo N.P. (Decree 148/1992) became outdated as it did not comply with the minimum contents of a PORN established by state (Law 42/2007) and Galician (Law 9/2001, repealed by Law 5/2019) regulation. Thus, SGHN considers unfathomable and inadmissible the urgency with which was submitted to public information (just 15 days!!!) the modification of a PORN obsolete since 14 years ago.

And after this birth of the mountains a mouse was born…

Both the document of substantial revision of the Corrubedo N.P. PORN and the PRUX are poor and very incomplete, as they do not meet the minimum contents fixed by state (Article 20 of Law 42/2007) and Galician (Article 52 of Law 5/2019) regulation.

The Decree project proposes a much worse zoning than that of Decree 148/1992 and of the Natura 2000 network of Galicia Master Plan (Decree 37/2014) and in no way it ensures the conservation of the components of biodiversity, geodiversity and the natural heritage that determined the declaration of the Natural Park:

A “Reserve Area” is not contemplated to secure the most important elements of the Natural Park, especially the wetlands and the mobile dune.
Uses as units: “Limited use area”, “Compatible use area” and “General use area”. The chosen denomination for these units express the disregard for the conservation values, and the subjection of these to uses and activities contrary to the preservation of a favourable conservation state.
In the “Limited use area” it excludes the beach from the “Coastal area”, without any kind of environmental argument.
It does not set the criteria of “compatibility” for the “Compatible use area”.
For the “General use area”, deemed less natural, it is not considered the possibility of “restoration” and improvement of the “conservation status” of the environmental aspects, against what was established in European (Directive 92/43/CEE), state (Law 42/2007) and autonomic (Law 5/2019) regulation.
It leaves open the possibility of new constructions in the “General use area” in grounds considered as “rural centre” by the Ribeira PXOM (General Municipal Development Plan), that does not adjust to the criteria fixed for a plan in Article 6 of Directive 92/43/CEE (Article 46 of Law 42/2007), therefore the PROJECT is unlawful as it seeks de facto authorisation of a blatant breach of the European (Directive 92/43/CEE), state (Law 42/2007) and autonomic (Law 5/2019) regulation as all of the Natural Park is a Protected Area of Natura 2000 network (SAC and SPA).

…that does not come with a loaf of bread under its arm (negation of old Spanish saying that expresses the good things that happen after the birth of a baby)

There is not an economic programme in the Decree PROJECT, just a table that shows an annual loan of 100 000 €. For an area with the importance and complexity of the Corrubedo N.P., a loan of just 100 €/ha/year!!! it is simply ridiculous.

SGHN requirements

The Directorate General of Natural Heritage retire the Decree PROJECT and start the drafting of a new document. The logical and rational sequence would be to modify the PORN, meeting all the contents and objectives the state and autonomic regulation mark, and then to draft a PRUX.
The drafting of new documents should be supported and reviewed by expert staff and then debated in the Galician Biodiversity Observatory, in order to:
- Reduce the serious shortcomings that the document presents in relation to the diagnosis and assessment of elements of geodiversity, biodiversity, natural heritage, cultural heritage and socio-economic environment.
- Improve the management measures, the plans and the programmes.

Text translated by Xoán Núñez Bazal (student of the Degree of Translation and Interpretation of the University of Vigo)