Spain, Valsaín (Segovia), National Center of Environmental Education (CENEAM) – National Parks – Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge—“RECIDA, The Spanish Network of Green Libraries working for Sustainability”

RECIDA is a Spanish network of environmental and protected areas documentation centers distributed in its 17 autonomous communities. RECIDA has been created during the annual Seminars of Environmental Documentation Centres hosted by CENEAM, National Center for Environmental Education,  belonging to National Parks,  Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, with the collaboration of the Generalitat de Catalunya, since 2002. Other Institutions from different regions of Spain have collaborated in several editions.

The network is coordinated by the National Center for Environmental Education (CENEAM) with the collaboration of La Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park Documentation Centre and with the support of all centers.

Currently, RECIDA network has 138  institutional members belonging to different administrations (national, regional, universities, associations, foundations, etc.) with very different budgets, libraries holdings, documentalists training, functions, etc. The centers are diverse, but all share a common concern about the environment and  the decision to work according to the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda.

An experts assessment commission has been created to allow us to give support to such diversity. These experts have a considerable background, experience, good contacts, belong to the main documentation centers, etc.

Several centers have undertaken becoming certified whether under Environmental Management (European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas) or Quality and Environmental Systems Standards,  thus being a guarantee that our centres work under quality systems in an environmentally sustainable way, and under a constant trend towards improvement.

Our project is replicable to other sustainable library networks in other countries. Our network is open to new alliances and we will be happy to help and collaborate with other people.

Please click to view its submission (infographic).