The renaturalización river, the improvement of the riparian forest and the promotion of the biodiversity of the river Tins to its passage through the urban core. With these objectives was born Renatur_Outes, a project that attended the USC through the Institute of Studies and Development of Galicia (IDEGA) and which presented this Thursday at the Faculty of Biology the results of an intervention that has managed to restore 2 km of riverbed and mobilize more than 600 voluntaries.
Science, public management and environmental education coordinated themselves to move forward in the recovery of this river ecosystem as it passes through the city council of Outes. The conference was inaugurated by Inés Gusman, director of the Centre for Regional Studies (CEER), and by Ángeles Piñeiro, a member of the group ANTE and coordinator of the project at the University of Santiago; Miguel Serrano, of the department of Botany of the USC; Jonatan Rodríguez Parra, in the area of ecology of the USC; Carmen Fabregat, of the University of a Coruña (UDC); Luis González, of the University of Vigo (UVigo); and Joám Evans, of the Foundation Montescola.
For three years of intervention it was possible to restore more than 20.000 m2 of green areas and more than 4 km of clean river. It generated 300 m2 of islands of biodiversity and more than 800 people were involved in the processes of governance and social participation. Ángeles Piñeiro, in turn, stressed the Declaration of the Rights of the river Tins held on march 1, 2024 that has consolidated it as the first river with rights in Spain. “The results of the project are physical, but the active participation of the local community is one of the most important achievements. The residents associations, foundations working in the territory and the students were key in these actions to raise the awareness and recovery of the river”, she explains.
The conference presented the advances in biodiversity and ecology and analysed the various actions carried out for the improvement of the connectivity of the bed of the river, the recovery of the riparian forest and the control of invasive species like the different acacias present (Acacia dealbata and Acacia melanoxylon), the Tradescantia fluminensis or the plants of the genus Crocosmia. These actions have allowed to reduce the pressure of the invasive and promote the regeneration of the native vegetation of the riparian.
Renatur_Outes was coordinated by the Centre of Euroregional Studies (Foundation CEER) and led by the City of Outes, and counted with the participation of researchers of the three public universities of galicia, as well as Montescola. From the USC, the IDEGA collaborated in the preliminary works about the risks of flooding in the study area of the project. The initiative had the support of the Biodiversity Fundation of the Ministry for the Ecologic Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) in the framework of the Plan of Recovery, Transformation and Resilience (PRTR), funded by the European Union – Next GenerationEU.
