Quiet Parks International awarded the Urban Quiet Park status to Parc del Montnegre i el Corredor in Spain on Oct. 09, 2021
Parc del Montnegre i el Corredor Urban Quiet Park became the First Urban Quiet Park in Spain.
Parc del Montnegre i el Corredor is a large protected natural area located in the Montnegre Massif in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia. Millions of people live within an hour of this park. The park offers a true sense of wilderness in the midst of this densely populated part of Spain.
The award ceremony was held in the park on 9th of October, 2021. Ulf Bohman, QPI Executive Director of Urban Quiet Parks stated: “The possibilities to find stillness and be surrounded by nature this close to a city really amazed me.”
The mountainous terrain and dense vegetation gives many possibilities to find incredibly quiet locations where the sounds of nature dominates.
The award was presented to the Director of the Park, Antoni Bombi, who said, “This award will inspire us to keep working to protect the quiet in Parc del Montnegre i el Corredor and strive to make it even quieter in the future.”
To award the first Urban Quiet Park in Spain and to a park that is close to such a densely populated area as Barcelona is very important for Quiet Parks Internationals mission to save quiet and create awareness of how important silence and stillness are not only for human health and well-being but for all living things.
It is also important to note that all this happened thanks to Heike Freire and her post-graduate students in Green Pedagogy. They nominated the park and did an excellent evaluation and report on the park.
Facts: Large parks and nature reserves close to a major urban areas fulfil many different needs for recreation and contact with nature. And Parc del Montnegre i el Corredor is such a park, but it’s also a bit unusual since people live and farm in the park and many gravel roads criss-cross the park. Due to its location in the coastal region, the park’s vegetation boasts a richness typical of Atlantic and continental climates. The cork oaks, holm oaks and stone pine forests, characteristic of the Mediterranean climate, are the majority.
More Urban Quiet Parks are planned for Dender-Marke Quiet Area in Flanders, Belgium on October 29, 2021 and Judarskogen, Hansta, Älvsjöskogen, Kyrkhamn och Sätraskogen urban quiet parks in Stockholm, Sweden, early next year. Potential urban quiet parks are also being evaluated in Paris, Toronto, Brisbane, New York and Wellington Town Belt, NZ.
Yangmingshan Urban Quiet Park, Taiwan, became the World’s First Urban Quiet Park in 2020 and Hampstead Heath Urban Quiet Park was awarded Europe’s First Urban Quiet Park in 2021.
About QPI
Quiet Parks International, a non-profit organisation based in Los Angeles, is on a mission to save quiet for the benefit of all life by establishing Urban Quiet Parks, Wilderness Quiet Parks, Quiet Trails, Quiet Marine Parks and more, worldwide. Quiet is essential not only for human health and welfare but also for wildlife who require a clean acoustic environment to communicate and complete their life-cycle.
Photo credit: Parc del Montnegre i el Corredor and heikefreire.com
Award ceremony images are free to use by anyone as long as you specify that they were taken on 09-10-2021 at the event titled: Latidos del Montnegre (Heartbeats of Montnegre)
Press Contact
Gordon Hempton, Executive Director of Media Affairs, gordon@quietparks.org, cell +1-360-477-9588, Skype ID quiet.planet1
Vikram Chauhan, President and Co-Founder: vikram@quietparks.org
Ulf Bohman, Executive Director of Urban Quiet Parks: ulf@quietparks.org