On 3 August the director of the Liencres Dunes Natural Park, of the Directorate-General of Natural Environment of the Regional Ministry of Rural Affairs, Fisheries and Food of the Government of Cantabria (collaborating member of LIFE+ARCOS), Jesús Varas, held a meeting to meet the new mayor of Piélagos, Verónica Samperio. One of the meeting topics related with the Natural Park was introducing her to the LIFE+ARCOS project: “Conserving Cantabrian Dunes” and the activities being carried out in the Valdearenas dune system.
During the meeting, we explained the general scope of action of LIFE+ARCOS project and analysed the activities scheduled through 2018 within the Valdearenas dune system, one of the largest on the Cantabrian coast. Both parties agreed about the importance of tourism in the area and the need to plan activities to conserve this fragile habitat.
We also talked about continuing forward with the policy to eradicate invasive plants while prioritising mechanical control methods, planting and increasing threatened native species and installing sand collectors among the activities within the LIFE+ARCOS work programme. It is also advisable that dunes be temporarily closed to avoid alterations to the areas we have worked on.
The Mayor was interested in knowing more about the project’s activities and suggested holding occasional coordination meetings as well as carrying out a technical visit to Valdearenas beach to interact with the current state of Berria beach’s dune system and to evaluate existing public use infrastructure