Background The Barcelona Metropolitan Region (RMB), a region with an area of 3200 Km² and accounting for 70 percent of the population of Catalunya (4,200,000 inhabitants) and producing 72 percent of its GDP, has gone from 20,000 hectares of urban development in 1973, to 46,000 hectares in 1992 in a context in which the Catalan population grew by 16.7 percent (whilst land occupation has grown by 130 percent). The urban occupation forecast (according to current urban plans) foresees an increase of 32,945 hectares, making the total forecast urban occupation in the year 2000 a total of 79,645 hectares. This urban expansion implies formation of a conurbation that will make it impossible to connect natural areas, with consequent environmental and landscape conflicts. The phenomenon of intensive land occupation is translated into vague urban development, in which the need for services (water, electricity, transport, etc.) is multiplied, along with fragmentation and segmentation of the territory (low density residential developments, diffuse industry, service and access roads, by-passes and large connecting roads within the metropolitan urban fabric with the corresponding large-format shopping centres at their crossings). This is a direct attack on bio-diversity and the sustainability of natural systems because of the interruption this represents for natural corridors, resulting in a non-viable development model. Objectives The general objective was to organise in a coherent way non-development land in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (RMB), comprising natural and agricultural spaces. The project responded to the need to protect the territory from the intensity and dispersion of the urban development phenomenon by integrating the environment and sustainable development in territorial planning. The project developed three actions for restoring degraded peri-urban spaces so as to temper urban pressures and dignify the quality of the landscapes in areas with high population densities. The actions were designed to consolidate marginal natural and agricultural spaces that, despite their biological potential, have been subjected to environmental stress over recent decades, preventing any natural regeneration. Three areas were selected, with areas of between 8 and 10 hectares, in which restoration activity aimed to strengthen the landscape function in the face of the degradation caused by diffuse urban development. With these experiences, the 'Anella Verde' project aims to convert these areas into a greenbelt by which the spread of urban land will be limited. At the same time, the greenbelt will guarantee and increase the bio-diversity of the landscape and provide it with a social function. That is why the actions in Mollet del Vallés, Santa Coloma de Gramenet and in the Parc Agrari in Baix Llobregat should be promoted and publicised, so as to strengthen the impact of the project through the whole RMB, as well as other European metropolitan areas. Specifically, the actions are designed to: - Increase the presence of water in the ground by using disused water resources or by replacing the more fragile vegetation so as to favour natural regeneration without subsequent maintenance. - Consolidate green spaces to buffer urban development. - Recover traditional species and varieties of fruit trees. The final objective is to see the natural and agricultural areas forming a single territorial ecological matrix, coordinating sustainability and bio-diversity. The rationalisation implied by the Anella Verde project signifies an environmental benefit in itself, with energy savings, the minimisation of the impacts of the destruction of habitats and the recovery and conservation of peri-urban spaces that would otherwise be headed for total degradation. Results The expected results of this project were: PILOT SCHEME IN SANTA COLOMA DE GRAMENET - Use of most of the groundwater in the lower Besòs river basin, which otherwise would go straight to the sea. - Forestation with hygrophilic plants, with the capacity to increase the hygroscopic accumulation that prevents the easy spreading of fires - Construction of a natural barrier that would decrease the number of access points to the natural open space, allowing at the same time its recreational and leisure use by the neighbouring population. - Creation of a buffer zone to prevent encroachment on the Park by unplanned urban development. PILOT SCHEME IN MOLLET DEL VALLÈS - Conversion of land considered suitable for urban development and that would undoubtedly end up being absorbed into the urban nucleus of Mollet del Vallès, into a periurban greenbelt. Intervention of this kind will not only save this land from housing developments, but will also make it profitable through an envisaged education programme. PILOT PROJECT IN THE AGRICULTURAL PARK - Recovery of populations of traditional varieties of fruit trees with the capacity, through nursery reproduction, to be cultivated commercially in orchards, thus responding to a growing demand from consumers for this kind of product. - Improvement of farms in the Agricultural Park, including replacement of modern cultivars with traditional ones and with organic crops with favourable cost-benefits. The beneficiary has not included a detailed analysis for each pilot project. Further information must be submitted.