The President of the Provincial Council of Jaén, Paco Reyes, met today with mayors and representatives of the five municipalities crossed by the Natural Trail Via Verde del Aceite (Jaén, Torredelcampo, Torredonjimeno, Martos and Alcaudete) to present the Renaturavía project, aimed at “renaturalising” this tourist and sports route. This initiative seeks to involve not only local councils, but also the social fabric and local businesses, as “we understand that it represents an opportunity to generate greater wealth and employment”.
Reyes stated this during the meeting, which was attended, in addition to the mayors of Jaén, Torredelcampo and Torredonjimeno — Julio Millán, Javier Chica and Enrique Castro, respectively — by the Provincial Councillor for the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change, Isabel Uceda; the Provincial Councillor for Agriculture and Livestock, Javier Perales; and the Head of Agri-food Systems and Rural Development at SEO/BirdLife, José Eugenio Gutiérrez. In this forum, the President of the Provincial Council stressed the importance of greenways in the province of Jaén, noting that “we have nearly 100 kilometres of natural trails in our territory, not including the section currently under construction, which runs between Arroyo del Ojanco and Villanueva del Arzobispo”.
To improve one of these greenways, the Via Verde del Aceite, the Provincial Council, together with the Consortium of the Via Verde del Aceite of Jaén and the Spanish Ornithological Society, SEO/BirdLife, has secured a €3.2 million grant from the Biodiversity Foundation. In this regard, Paco Reyes clarified that “85% of these funds are financed through ERDF resources, while the remaining 15% will be covered by the Provincial Council and the NGO SEO/BirdLife”.
In this way, and with the implementation of Renaturavía, “we will improve a natural trail that in recent years has acted as a driver of activity in these five municipalities and is widely used, as evidenced by the figure of one million users per year”. A greenway which, as he pointed out, “when it was created offered a range of opportunities, but also presented challenges, which this project — to be implemented over three years — aims to address”.
Among the difficulties affecting this route, Reyes highlighted the lack of “natural vegetation, as olive groves have taken over almost everything; soil management is required, as well as improvements to the area’s plant and animal biodiversity, the creation of refuges for insects, birds and other species, and, of course, the enhancement of green infrastructure from urban access points”. Ultimately, as the President of the Provincial Council emphasised, “our objective is to renaturalise this space, which has become a place of high visitor numbers throughout the year”.
For his part, Carlos Ruiz, a technician at SEO/BirdLife, explained that this project represents a major opportunity to showcase how leisure infrastructures such as this “can be improved and restored from an environmental perspective, enhancing the service provided to citizens”. Along these lines, he noted that these restoration actions will not only provide users with more shaded areas, but also the opportunity to observe a greater number of species in nature: birds, insects, mammals… “This initiative has a high outreach potential, allowing us to demonstrate the importance of small landscape elements in increasing ecological connectivity, something we consider essential in a province like Jaén. In addition, it has a strong demonstrative character, capable of inspiring other administrations and groups to carry out similar work on greenways across Andalusia”, he added.
As part of this renaturalisation process, as detailed by Paco Reyes, almost 5,200 trees and more than 17,000 shrubs are expected to be planted; five ponds and two ‘life houses’ for birds and bats will be built; and nearly 70 insect refuges and 65 bird perches will be installed. Likewise, four birdwatching observatories and five new green pergolas will be created to serve as climate shelters, alongside the refurbishment of existing ones. In short, the aim is “to make the route more attractive to the public, while also renaturalising this entire 55-kilometre stretch that runs through the province of Jaén”, as concluded by the President of the provincial administration.
