Technical Report for the Decommissioning, Ecological Restoration and Life Cycle Impact Assessment of the Proposed Island Marine Project

Location: Valdecañas Island, Cáceres (Spain)

Year: 2015

 #EcologicalRestoration #Dismantling

The organizations Ecometro, Creando Redes and n’UNDO carried out the drafting of a Technical Report for the Dismantling, Ecological Restoration and Life Cycle Impact Assessment of the Valdecañas Island Marine Project. This complex was built on the Island of Valdecañas, a bird protection area (ZEPA) and of scenic and natural interest where an illegal urban development intervention has taken place, evoking that of the Hotel Algarrobico in Carboneras, Almería.

With the consent of the Regional Government of Extremadura, the construction of the complex was allowed; which meant the deforestation of the area of intervention, the expulsion of the fauna from the surroundings and the privatization of the public land which was relegated to an exclusive and excluding use. The report is presented as part of the judicial process led by Ecologistas en Acción, for the demolition of the complex and the recovery of a natural site that had been plundered.

The report presents a possible and beneficial solution for the community to the conflict generated by the construction of the Valdecañas Island Marina project. The proposal proposes different areas of action connected to each other:

– As opposed to the traditional demolition proposed by the Directorate General for Transport, Land Planning and Urban Development of the Government of Extremadura2 , n’UNDO proposes Selective Dismantling with correct Waste Management by type of material.

– Against an estimate of the Carbon Footprint emitted, Ecometro proposes the evaluation of the Life Cycle Impact (LCI) of the complex, which in addition to the Carbon Footprint includes six other categories of environmental impact; as well as the calculation of the capacity of the absorption sink of the restored forest mass of the Marine Island of Valdecañas.

– Faced with the abandonment of Valdecañas Island or the rehabilitation of the space with conventional revegetation techniques, Creando Redes proposes an Ecological Restoration plan with an integral vision that allows the recovery of the natural capital and the resilience of the intervention area.

The report is available for consultation and download here:

Informe técnico | Desmantelar: el verdadero impacto