Environment restores the buffer zone of the Galician green strategy

The Department of Environment and Climate Change approved the Order of November 4, 2026, to execute Judgment 60/2026, dated February 13, from the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Galicia (TSXG), which declared the partial nullity of the regulation approving the regional green strategy. The provision was published in the Official Gazette of Galicia (DOG) No. 212, corresponding to Thursday, November 5, 2026, in section III (Other provisions), page 55664, with the reference CVE-DOG: 3ispioj4-p8r4-vsm7-zbd8-mpq0mr6khz90. The order restores the buffer zone disputed in the litigation and readjusts the cartography and the total area of the Strategy.

The regulation now being corrected is the Order of October 4, 2024, by which the Galician Strategy for Green Infrastructure and Ecological Connectivity and Restoration was approved. A contentious-administrative appeal was filed against that order, which was partially upheld by the judicial resolution, declaring its partial nullity. To comply with the ruling, the department led by Nicolás Vázquez Iglesias modifies the current text in order to adapt two central elements to the resolution: the cartographic delimitation and the total affected area.

Restoration of the buffer zone

The sole article of the order, titled “Execution of the judgment,” orders the modification of the Strategy to reinstate the buffer zone subject to the proceedings in the exact terms in which it appeared prior to the public information process. According to the text published in the DOG, the result of the modification is as follows:

• The buffer zone returns to the configuration it had before the public exhibition period.
• The cartographic delimitation is adjusted to the judicial ruling.
• The total affected area is recalculated in coherence with the new cartography.

The order does not introduce other changes to the articles of the Strategy: it limits its intervention to the elements questioned by the court and leaves the rest of the document in its current terms.

Cartography and entry into force

The provision incorporates the resulting cartography through maps published on the official download link of the Xunta de Galicia (https://descargas.xunta.es/671f19e2-fffa-47e3-a5ba-9df7b9dd38891690183038515). The sole final provision establishes that the regulation takes effect from the day following its publication in the official gazette, that is, November 6, 2026. The order is signed by the counselor Nicolás Vázquez Iglesias in Santiago de Compostela, on November 4, 2026.

Territorial scope

The modification affects the two elements that determine the territorial scope of the Strategy: the cartographic delimitation and the total area. The return to the delimitation prior to the public information process means that the buffer zone recovers the limits previous to the public exhibition of the document, such that the lands included or excluded in that area are defined by the cartography now republished.

The execution of the ruling closes, via administrative channels, a dispute initiated against the 2024 order and shifts its practical effect to the cartographic plane. The councils and the owners of affected lands must consult the maps published alongside the order to determine their situation regarding the buffer zone, as the regulation is effective from November 6, 2026, and its publication in the DOG is what determines the applicable limits.

Source: Official Gazette of Galicia, no. 212, November 5, 2026, section III (Other provisions), p. 55664 (official reference: CVE-DOG: 3ispioj4-p8r4-vsm7-zbd8-mpq0mr6khz90).