Galicia’s landscape is green and rugged, criss-crossed by gentle hills and a multitude of rivers, tributaries of the Miño, in the interior, and those that are short and fast, which descend towards the Cantabrian and Atlantic coasts. The peculiarity of Galicia’s human population, with a high level of dispersion, offers the opportunity to discover its geography by visiting a multitude of small villages and towns. Its 1,500 km of coastline are also diverse, with the narrow Rías Altas, rugged Costa da Morte, and wide Rías Baixas.
Beyond its heritage and cultural value, and its ability to attract tourists, the natural environment in Galicia is a key element of its economy, where the exploitation of fishing and forestry resources, and the derived processing industries, carry an essential weight.
At urban scale, an effort is being made to put this natural heritage at the service of citizens, also using it as a resource in strategies to combat climate change. Santiago de Compostela Council, for example, manages 300 hectares of green areas, with more than 30,000 trees, to which must be added mountains (Monte Pedroso and Monte do Viso), the surroundings of the Sar and Sarela riversides, and the Brañas de Sar. Added to the green areas and forests managed by the Xunta de Galicia and the USC itself, on its campuses, we are talking about more than 800 hectares of green areas in the surroundings of Santiago de Compostela.
Lugo is located within the Terras do Miño Biosphere Reserve, the second largest in Spain, with an area of more than 336,500 hectares (39% of the province of Lugo). The city of Lugo has launched the Lugo + Biodynamic project, with the collaboration of the USC among other entities, in order to develop a new urban planning strategy, with an innovative management of green areas, to combat climate change.