The main objective of the European Project Qualigouv, is to strenghten the interaction between managers and people, through designing and testing strategies and innovative tools to improve governance and integral management of Mediterranean forest in protected areas. Within the framework of this program, a local project in Murcia (Spain) is focused in the Master Plans for socio-economical development and ecological conservation

FLORES F. DIOS CABEZA (DE) J.

LOPEZ C.

VELAMAZAN M.

I-Revues

500
Mediterranean Forest Week of Avignon
Master Plans
in Sierra Espuña Natural Park
and Gebas Protected Landscape
(Murcia, Spain)
Participative planning
for socio-economical development
and ecological conservation
by Mario VELAMAZÁN, Cristina LÓPEZ, Francisco FLORES
& Juan de DIOS CABEZAS
Introduction
The protection of Forestry areas and its management has evolved
significantly during the recent decades, with “top-down” policies and
technocratic measures that were not aimed enough at environmental
conservation objectives. Different topics, such as co-management or
environmental governance, have increased in their importance in order
to develop inclusive policies for the different socio-economical agents
interested in environment (EUROPARC-ESPAÑA, 2007; WILSON, G.A.,
2009).
Following this, understanding the interactions between a protected
area and the local communities of its surrounding areas is a prelimi-
nary and essential step to actively manage protected areas. It is essen-
tial to analize the natural and cultural heritage and its conservation
requirements, but also the socio-economical relationships and flows, to
be able to optimize interactions between managers and society (GÓMEZ
LIMÓN et al, 2000).
The main objective of the
European Project Qualigouv, is to
strenghten the interaction
between managers and people,
through designing and testing
strategies and innovative tools to
improve governance and integral
management of Mediterranean
forest in protected areas. Within
the framework of this program,
a local project in Murcia (Spain)
is focused in the Master Plans
for socio-economical development
and ecological conservation.
forêt méditerranéenne t. XXXII, n° 4, décembre 2011
501
Session “Forests, societies and territories”
Since 2008, some Mediterranean
Administrations and NGOs have been con-
ducting a European Project called
Qualigouv, whose main objective is to
strengthen the interaction between man-
agers and people, through designing and
testing strategies at different levels and
using innovative tools to improve governance
and the integral management of
Mediterranean forest in protected areas.
Coordinated by Murcia Region, the members
are the International Association for
Mediterranean Forests (AIFM), the Parc
Naturel Regional du Luberon,the Parc
Naturel Regional des Alpilles, WWF,
Generalitat Valenciana, the french Office
Nationales des Forêts and Taranto Province
in Italy.
The Qualigouv project, which has been
developed through several monitored and
evaluated pilot project actions, is focused on
the Region of Murcia in the “Master Plans
for socio-economical development and ecolog-
ical conservation”. These plans aim to
improve people’s quality of life in four small
rural towns in the surroundings of Sierra
Espuña Natural Park and Gebas Protected
Landscape whilst being consistent with envi-
ronmental conservation and sustainable
development.
Location
Sierra Espuña Regional Park and the
Gebas Protected Landscape are located in
the geographical center of the Murcia
Region, in the South-east of Spain. This ter-
ritory was one of the first great reforestation
areas in Spain. At the beginning of the 20th
century, most of its mountains were re-
forested, transforming a wasteland into the
biodiverse forest that it is nowadays, pro-
tected by its cultural and natural values. It
covers 17,804 hectares across the municipali-
ties of Alhama de Murcia, Totana, Aledo and
Mula. In 1931, it was designated as a “Place
of National Interest”, and in 1992 it was pro-
tected as a “Natural Park”. It is also classi-
fied as a SPA (Special Protection Area)
because of its bird population and as a SAC
(Special Area of Conservation) due to its
important habitats and species. It holds
around 1000 different species of flora, 36 of
them protected by Regional and National
laws. The predominant tree is the Carrasco
pine and there are 123 species of birds, 38 of
mammals and a vast array of insects,
amphibians and reptiles.
The Sierra Espuña Management team
earned the Spanish National Certification “Q
for Quality Tourism” for the Natural Park in
March 2005, and its forest management has
been certified by the PEFC (Programme for
Endorsement of Forest Certification
Schemes) and FSC (Forest Stewardship
Council) systems.
Gebas Protected Landscape was estab-
lished by the Regional Law 4/1992. It covers
1.875 ha across Alhama de Murcia and
Librilla municipalities. Gebas creeks are one
of the best examples of a typical arid terri-
tory, an impressive succession of “bad lands”.
The international popularity of this area is
due to its geomorphological resources and
landscape, together with the singularity of
the plant communities.
The same Management Plan is working for
both areas since 1995 (Regional Law
13/1995) and according to its rules, the
socioeconomic and ecological Master Plans
are continuing to be developed since 2008 in
order to implement participative processes
at a local level in the four small villages
around Sierra Espuña Regional Park and
the Gebas Protected Landscape. These small
villages are: Gebas (Alhama de Murcia), El
Berro (Alhama de Murcia-Mula), Casas
Nuevas (Mula) and El Purgatorio (Totana).
Picture 1:
Sierra Espuña landscape
Juan Tomas Gandia
Sanchez
502
Mediterranean Forest Week of Avignon
The villages involved
El Berro (Alhama de Murcia and Mula)
has 200 inhabitants. It is a located within
the forest and the country, the mountain and
the valley.
Casas Nuevas is another small village in
Mula with 215 inhabitants. It was the last
village founded within the Mula municipal-
ity. It is located in the Northern area of the
Protected Area.
Gebas (Alhama de Murcia) with less than
100 inhabitants, is located between the “bad
lands” protected landscape and Sierra
Espuña.
El Purgatorio is located in the North-
West of the Totana municipality, belonging
to the hamlet of La Sierra. It has 56 regis-
tered residents in 2009.
Although the four villages and hamlets
involved in the project are rather small, they
are very influential in the Natural Park
management, as the livelihoods of the inhab-
itants is from tourism, agriculture or forest
management, which have a great influence
over the fauna, flora and other natural pro-
tected resources in the area. The speed of
inhabitant reduction, which was very rapid
some decades ago, has decreased recently.
Apart from this, there is an important per-
centage of people that live in other munici-
palities who return on weekends or on holi-
days (BARAZA MARTÍNEZ et al, 2003).
Methodology
The methodology was applied in four small
rural villages that depend on the main
municipalities: Gebas (Alhama de Murcia, El
Berro (Alhama de Murcia y Mula), Casas
Nuevas (Mula) and El Purgatorio (Totana).
The first objective was to learn about and
analyse the characteristics of the municipali-
ties that compose the protected areas.
Information on the socioeconomic status of
the small towns was collected (through sur-
veys, longue interviews with decision-mak-
ers and participatory meetings) in order to
understand the influence of the protected
areas on the municipalities and their envi-
ronment, to define actions that could be
implemented to promote economic growth in
a conservation framework and to be able to
create mechanisms that could improve com-
munication among local communities and
the Environmental Administration.
Results
At the moment, three processes have been
completed and the forth one is facing the last
step. People’s responses have been very posi-
tive due to the fact that they had never pre-
viously been consulted about land manage-
ment planning in their territories before.
However, implementation has turned out to
be the most difficult process because it was
such a broad request that the needs and sug-
gestions that were identified involved differ-
ent administrations and managers, which
has created difficulties in giving responses as
promptly as the local population was expect-
ing.
Picture 2:
Barrancos de Gebas
Juan Tomas Gandia
Sanchez
Figure 1:
Rural Villages in the
Natural Park where
Master Plans are being
implemented
503
Session “Forests, societies and territories”
The actions that were extracted from the
participatory meetings in different hamlets
are included in the different working lines:
– Promotion of social participation.
– Valuing natural and rural heritage.
– Recovery and enhancement of cultural
heritage.
– Training and advice for rural develop-
ment.
– Promoting local production systems.
– Creation or improvement of infrastruc-
ture and equipment.
– Create structures for institutional coor-
dination.
The most voted for actions, and therefore
the highest priority, are to: improve the
health and transport in the hamlets,
improvement infrastructure (roads,
sewage...), hire a local development agent,
provide support for local associations, organ-
ize several conferences (training, the
dynamization of the populations...), provide
technical support to farmers to develop a
“Natural Brand” for products from the area,
undertake changes in the legal declaration of
certain areas...
Conclusions
After three years, several lessons have
been learnt from these and other processes
included in the QUALIGOUV project.
Consequently, new procedures have been
devised in order to create conditions for
future success in other Mediterranean pro-
tected areas. Firstly, although village scale
provides very detailed and precise informa-
tion about measures proposed, actions and
areas where they would be implemented
often overlap. A single socioeconomic plan,
including all the villages involved, is consid-
ered to be a better option for the whole pro-
tected area.
Secondly, administrations and institutions
that will be responsible for the implementa-
tion of measures should participate from the
beginning of the process in order to be able
to integrate corresponding actions into their
own activities. This will enable the adjust-
ment of measures to realistic budgets and
avoid false expectations from the local popu-
lation.
Finally, dynamic and local implementation
and monitoring are essential. That is the
reason why local offices, the Master Plan
dynamizer role and monitoring committees
with managers, technicians, politicians and
local stakeholders participation, are very
important, as well as coordination of these
committees. These four committees, focused
in villages, will have to integrate coordina-
tion with other participatory processes such
us Model Forest (larger scales), Park Council
(with management objectives) or European
Chart of Sustainable Tourism (focused in a
concrete activity).
In conclusion, the Master Plan methodol-
ogy is a very effective tool in making people
Picture 3:
El Berro
Lydia Lorca Cava
Picture 4:
Participatory meeting
in Casas Nuevas
Juan José Andujar Diaz
504
Mediterranean Forest Week of Avignon
Summary
Since 2008, some Mediterranean Administrations and Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) are conduc-
ting a European Project MED called Qualigouv, whose main objective is to strenghten the interaction bet-
ween managers and people, through designing and testing strategies at different levels and innovative tools
to improve governance and integral management of Mediterranean forest in protected areas. The local pro-
ject in Murcia is focused in the Master Plans for socio-economical development and ecological conservation.
These plans are aimed to improve the life quality of people consistently with environmental conservation and
sustainable development in four small rural towns around Sierra Espuña Natural Park and Gebas Protected
Landscape.
Through a participatory process, information on the socioeconomic situation in the small towns was collected
(through surveys, large interviews to decision-makers and participatory meetings) in order to understand the
influence of the protected area on the municipalities and their environment, to define actions that could be
implemented to promote economic growth in a conservation framework and to be able to create mecha-
nisms that could improve communication among local communities and the Environmental Administration.
After three years, several lessons have been learnt from these and other processes included in the QUALI-
GOUV project. Consequently, although the Master Plans have shown to be a very efficient tool, new proce-
dures have been thought in order to create conditions for future success in other Mediterranean protected
areas.
feel that a closer relationship with the
administration is being developed. People
from rural areas are not too worried about
limitations derived from protection require-
ments. However, in a sustainability context,
they are asking for an administration that is
able to work together with them for their ter-
ritory development, protected or not.
M.V.
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Mario VELAMAZÁN,
Cristina LÓPEZ,
Francisco FLORES
Juan de Dios
CABEZAS
General Directorate
for the Environment,
Murcia Region
Spain
Email:
mario.velamazan.ros
@gmail.com
For more information:
www.qualigouv.eu
forêt méditerranéenne t. XXXII, n° 4, décembre 2011
Picture 5:
Casas Nuevas
Juan José Andujar Díaz.


Master Plans in Sierra Espuña Natural Park and Gebas Protected Landscape (Murcia, Spain). Participative planning for socio-economical development and ecological conservation -

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Master Plans in Sierra Espuña Natural Park and Gebas Protected Landscape (Murcia, Spain). Participative planning for socio-economical development and ecological conservation -

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