The Asturias Nature Network (RENA) will have a budget of 7,045,818 euros over the next three years to reinforce its attention to the public and consolidate its position as a reference in environmental education. This allocation will cover the care and management of the 23 interpretation and reception centres that make up the RENA, adapt it to the growing flow of visitors and strengthen the recreational-educational activities.
The network’s facilities and resources serve more than one million visitors a year in its twelve interpretation centres and eleven information points. In order to adapt to an ever-increasing volume of visitors, more staff will be added and the opening hours and information points will be extended. Thus, in 2024 a new one will be set up in Las Ubiñas-La Mesa Natural Park.
In addition, the RENA has four areas in which traffic regulation has been established in order to promote sustainable mobility in the protected areas. These are the lakes of Cuadonga/ Covadonga, in Cangas de Onís; the accesses to Sotres, Pandébano and the Cares route, in Cabrales, and the Alba route, in Sobrescobio, which will be reinforced in summer to meet the demand.
The Government of Asturias has also made a major effort to reinforce the information staff. This year, 60 professionals with roots in the areas where they work, knowledge of biodiversity and experience in environmental education will form part of the team in charge of attending to visitors.
Another of the services that has been consolidated is the itinerant coastal information service, which came into operation in 2021. The technicians travel to beaches, sandbanks and estuaries of protected areas to disseminate their environmental values, such as the different plant species of the dune areas or the biological rhythms of the intertidal zone, and to stress the need to respect these spaces.
More than 3,000 participants in environmental education activities
The budget for RENA also reinforces support for environmental education in protected areas. This includes different recreational and educational activities, leisure activities in nature, outside the classroom and aimed at schoolchildren, with the aim of raising awareness and making conservation compatible with public use.
According to the latest data, corresponding to the last academic year, more than 3,000 people took part in the different activities. The aim is to strengthen this area in the coming years to consolidate the network as a reference in environmental education.
The RENA, created in 2020, integrates all the protected areas of the Principality and brings together all the environmental education and visitor services related to natural heritage. Nearly 40% of the territory of Asturias has some form of protection. The region is home to one national park, five nature parks and seven biosphere reserves. It is the Spanish region with the highest number of biosphere reserves.