The Collserola Special Protection Plan (PEPNat): A Bid for Co-responsibility in Agricultural and Forest Management

The Collserola mountain range is a unique natural area covering over 8000 ha at the heart of a complex metropolitan realm. It thus presents great potential in terms of providing ecosystem services on a metropolitan and regional level yet has little ecological continuity with other nearby open spaces. As a result of the creation of Collserola Natural Park in 2010, a new special protection plan, the PEPNat, is currently being approved. This plan aims to preserve biodiversity and increase ecosystem services under dynamic and adaptive management. This contribution highlights the proposal for public-private management in relation to the preservation of ecological values and the valorization of natural resources and built heritage. Two important aspects are the structure of the property – the Park is over 60% privately owned – and the poor condition of the built heritage. The PEPNat establishes a link between the development of permitted uses in existing traditional buildings and a way of managing the property that promotes the silvo-agricultural mosaic and improves the functionality of interconnected spaces and habitat conservation among other things. The discussion focuses, on the one hand, on the ecological, social, and economic benefits on various levels and, on the other, on the main difficulties of its implementation.