The Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Ángeles Vázquez, highlighted today at the Cidade da Cultura the publication of a practical guide designed to facilitate the analysis of potential environmental, social, and economic impacts arising from the implementation of industrial projects that base their activity on the use or exploitation of the Community's natural resources.
This tool, available on the GAIA platform, aims to help streamline and complete the environmental analysis, while also reinforcing legal certainty. Galicia was the first region to legally integrate the express valuation of nature's ecosystem services into environmental processing procedures.
The guide provides a common and homogeneous reference framework for administrative bodies responsible for ensuring the balance between environmental protection and economic development. Its inclusion is mandatory in the assessment of renewable energy projects, water concessions, mining rights, and energy storage.
The regional official explained that the guide was developed based on acquired experience to facilitate the practical application of the regulation, which requires special attention to ecosystem services, understood as the benefits the population derives from the proper functioning of ecosystems.
The objective is for both the promoter and the assessment bodies to identify ecosystem services in the surrounding area, describe their status, evaluate potential effects, and define measures to prevent, reduce, correct, or compensate for impacts, as well as identify actions for their conservation and sustainable use.
With this initiative, Galicia aims to expedite the complete processing of files without diminishing environmental guarantees and to strengthen legal certainty, also facilitating the work of bodies responsible for issuing mandatory reports with structured and homogeneous documentation.
