Alicante, Spain
City population: 331770
Duration: 2014 – unknown
Implementation status: Completed
Scale: Micro-scale: District/neighbourhood level
Project area: unknown
Type of area: Public Greenspace Area
Last updated: October 2021

El Paseo de Canalejas is "an alley of trees inside the city tracing a central green corridor which exhibits its old ficus whose shades provide a pleasant refuge to the visitors during the hottest days of the year. Those ficus trees are considered as natural heritage." (Ref. 1). "In order to protect the Monumental Arboreal Heritage, Alicante City Council has worked on the elaboration of a Catalog of Unique and Monumental Trees of Local Interest that reflects the inventory of this heritage and provides these specimens with protective measures" (Ref. 3).

Canalejas Pathway
Canalejas Pathway

Overview

Nature-based solution

  • Grey infrastructure featuring greens
  • Alley or street trees and other street vegetation
  • Parks and urban forests
  • Pocket parks/neighbourhood green spaces
  • Green corridors and green belts

Key challenges

  • Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
  • Habitat and biodiversity conservation
  • Green space creation and/or management
  • Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
  • Environmental education
  • Social interaction
  • Health and well-being (SDG 3)
  • Enabling opportunities for physical activity
  • Creation of opportunities for recreation
  • Economic development and employment (SDG 8)
  • Tourism support
  • Cultural heritage and cultural diversity
  • Preservation of natural heritage
  • Protection of historic and cultural landscape/infrastructure
  • Preservation of historic traditions

Focus

Maintenance and management of urban nature, Protection of natural ecosystems, Knowledge creation and awareness raising

Project objectives

- Creation of a catalog of unique and monumental trees that reflects the inventory of this heritage (Ref. 3) - Provides protective measures to these specimens of trees (Ref. 2) - Educational purposes to raise awareness about tree conservation (Ref. 4) - Assessment and valorization of the municipality's landscape (Ref. 2) - Protection of the natural, cultural and landscape heritage of the city (Ref. 2)

Implementation activities

- Creation of a catalog of unique and monumental trees that reflects the inventory of this heritage (Ref. 3) - Provides protective measures to these specimens of trees (Ref. 2) -Educational and informative brochures/panels/signs created to raise awareness about tree conservation (Ref. 4) - Assessment and valorization of the municipality's landscape (Ref. 2) - Protection of the natural, cultural and landscape heritage of the city, including the trees (old ficus) as natural heritage (Ref. 2) "The Department of Environment has made this morning one of the first itineraries for the "Walks and Singular Trees", within the school campaign of the Council" (Ref. 4) - Free guided tours from the Municipality to promote tourism (Ref. 10) -This walk brochure/panel and list of trees is derived from the Red Senderos Network initiatives (Ref. 5)

Biodiversity conservation or restoration-focused activities

Biodiversity conservation:

  • Protect and enhance urban habitats
  • Preserve and strengthen existing habitats and ecosystems
  • Protect species
  • Undertake specific measures to protect species
  • Undertake specific measures to protect native species
  • Undertake specific measures to protect valued species
  • Means for conservation governance
  • Manage biological resources for conservation and sustainable use
  • Raise public awareness
  • Public engagement
  • Create and use scientific knowledge for conservation
  • Other

Main beneficiaries

  • Local government/Municipality
  • Citizens or community groups
  • Other

Governance

Management set-up

  • Government-led

Type of initiating organisation

  • Local government/municipality

Participatory approaches/ community involvement

  • Co-planning (e.g. stakeholder workshops, focus groups, participatory mapping)
  • Dissemination of information and education
  • Consultation (e.g. workshop, surveys, community meetings, town halls)
  • Other

Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project

The Alicante City Council is in charge of the maintenance of the trees (Ref. 2)

Project implemented in response to ...

... an EU policy or strategy? Unknown
... a national policy or strategy? Unknown
... a local policy or strategy? Yes (City Plan to protect natural heritage (Agenda 21))

Financing

Total cost

€10,000 - €50,000

Source(s) of funding

  • Public local authority budget

Type of funding

  • Earmarked public budget

Non-financial contribution

Unknown

Impacts and Monitoring

Environmental impacts

  • Climate change
  • Lowered local temperature
  • Water management and blue areas
  • Enhanced protection and restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems
  • Green space and habitat
  • Promotion of naturalistic styles of landscape design for urban development
  • Increased conservation or restoration of ecosystems
  • Increase in protected green space areas
  • Reduced biodiversity loss
  • Increased protection of threatened species
  • Other

Economic impacts

  • More sustainable tourism

Socio-cultural impacts

  • Social justice and cohesion
  • Improved liveability
  • Improved access to urban green space
  • Increased opportunities for social interaction
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Improved physical health
  • Improved mental health
  • Gain in activities for recreation and exercise
  • Cultural heritage and sense of place
  • Improvement in people’s connection to nature
  • Protection of natural heritage
  • Protection of historic and cultural landscape / infrastructure
  • Increased sense of place identity, memory and belonging
  • Increased awareness of flora and fauna as culturally and historically meaningful
  • Education
  • Increased support for education and scientific research
  • Increased knowledge of locals about local nature

Type of reported impacts

Expected impacts

Presence of formal monitoring system

Yes

Presence of indicators used in reporting

Yes

Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports

Yes

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

No

References

1. Alicante City & Beach. (no date). "Parque Canalejas". Source link. Available at: Source link (Accessed: July 16, 2020)
2. Ayuntamiento de Alicante (2017). "Urbanismo informará a la ciudadanía del Estudio de Paisaje, el 8 de noviembre en el MACA". Source link. Available at: Source link (Accessed: July 16, 2020)
3. Ayuntamiento de Alicante (2015). "Paseos y árboles singulares en el Centro Tradicional de Alicante". Source link. Available at: Source link (Accessed: July 16, 2020)
4. Ayuntamiento de Alicante (2016). "Alumnos de 5º y 6º de El Faro realizan el itinerario por paseos y árboles monumentales". Source link. Available at: Source link (Accessed: July 16, 2020)
5. Ayuntamiento de Alicante (2016). "Red de senderos urbanos". Source link. Available at: Source link (Accessed: July 16, 2020)
6. Ayuntamiento de Alicante (2017). "Estudio de Paisaje del Catálogo de Protecciones". Source link. Available at: Source link (Accessed: July 16, 2020)
7. Ayuntamiento de Alicante (2016). "Estudio de Paisaje del Municipio de Alicante". Available at: Source link (Accessed: July 16, 2020)
8. El Periodic (2016). "El Ayuntamiento somete a información pública el estudio de paisaje". Available at: Source link (Accessed: July 16, 2020)
9. Escribano, S. (2013). "Los vecinos más altos y longevos". Available at: Source link (Accessed: August 7, 2020)
10. Alicante, City and Beach (2020). "Alicante ofrece visitas guiadas gratuitas para reactivar el sector turístico tras el Covid-19". Available at: Source link (Accessed: August 7, 2020)
11. Rosser Limiñana, P. (2019). "Ficus gigante en Alicante". Available at: Source link (Accessed: August 7, 2020)
12. Tripadvisor. 2020. Paseo del Puerto. Available at: Source link
Canalejas Pathway
Students on the tour in the urban park