Madrid

| Map | |
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| Location | Madrid, Spain |
| Coordinates | 40° 25' 0.14" N, 3° 42' 12.90" W |
The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across Madrid.
News
Madrid’s summers can be brutally hot. So why are so many of our trees being chopped down? Felicity Hughes, theguardian.com (Aug 15, 2024)
The eye-popping new school designed by its pupils, Positive News (Apr 12, 2023)
‘We’re proud to be pioneers’: inside Spain’s community energy revolution, theguardian.com (Nov 14, 2025) — From Taradell to Galicia, cooperatives are supplying cheap, clean electricity to homes and helping tackle fuel poverty
Co-ops looking to change the world, town by town, thenews.coop (Nov 03, 2025)
In numbers: Renewables have turned Spain into one of Europe’s cheapest electricity markets, theprogressplaybook.com (Oct 02, 2025)
Sharing soil, sweat and tears, ffcc.co.uk (Oct 30, 2025) — Are farm partnerships the future? We talk to the team behind Abunda to find out
Renewable energy investment should come from defence budgets, say retired military leaders, theguardian.com (Oct 23, 2025) — Former European officers say spending on low-carbon power would make nations more resilient to threats from potential aggressors
Green to Grey, How Europe is squandering the little nature it has left, greentogrey.eu (Oct 01, 2025)
Bees, Community, and Shared Futures, grassecon.substack.com (Nov 20, 2025)
‘Robot’ buses could bring more environmental benefits than public transport with drivers, theconversation.com (Nov 20, 2025)
The Cambodian women rising up to protect their communal land, positive.news (Nov 20, 2025)
International events
Global or International events
Nov 05, 2025 (Wed) — Media Liberation Day, Change the Media, Change the Future, mediarevolution.org
Nov 06, 2025 (Thu) — Outdoor Classroom Day, celebrating and inspiring outdoor learning and play, outdoorclassroomday.com
Nov 13, 2025 (Thu) — World Kindness Day, Nov 13, annually, highlighting good deeds in the community focusing on the positive power and the common thread of kindness for good which binds us, randomactsofkindness.org
Nov 16, 2025 (Sun) — International Day for Tolerance, Nov 16 each year, fostering respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human, unesco.org
Nov 19, 2025 (Wed) — International Men's Day, Nov 19, annually
Nov 28 & 29, 2025 — Buy Nothing Day, en.wikipedia.org
2021-2030, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, International community action events
Each week 3 different short videos from across the world.
Education for sustainability, Ireland community action, Portugal community action / ...This week's featured UK videos / ... read more about Cosmolocalism
Madrid video
Networks and sustainability initiatives
- Neighbourhood initiatives across Madrid
- Los Madriles, Atlas de iniciativas vecinales (Atlas of neighbourhood initiatives), "What you have in front of you is an unfinished atlas of Madrid and its neighbourhood initiatives that have created new spaces of possibility, through self-management and participation. It also wants to be a gesture of recognition, gratitude, visibility, self-criticism and inclusion." latest news item Jan 2019, content available under a creative commons license
- Centro de Resiliencia de Aranjuez, closed 2017, content available under a creative commons license
Community involvement
Food activism
- Network of Urban Gardens of Madrid, The creation of the Network arose to make urban agriculture in Madrid visible, to respond to the needs of urban gardens to receive mutual support and share knowledge, experiences, inputs, etc.
- One of the objectives of the network is to create a meeting point between community agroecology initiatives in our city and move towards a friendlier city model that is interested in issues such as environmental education, food sovereignty, open distribution channels of products, consumer groups, sustainable mobility, agrocomposting, etc. content available under a creative commons license
Community resources
- Community Lovers Guide, Madrid
- El Campo de Cebada, Madrid, 2010; on facebook
Cycling
BiciMAD is a bicycle sharing system in Madrid, Spain. It is currently provided by the Empresa Municipal de Transportes de Madrid, a public company owned by the City Council of Madrid.
The service, originally granted to Bonopark SL, began operations on 23 June 2014. It was municipalized by the City Council on 17 May 2016. BiciMAD reached the number of 16,000 daily transportations for the first time in September 2018. As of March 2021, the system comprises 2964 bikes and 264 stations.
- bicimad.com
- by bike in Madrid, (blog)
Environment quality
The mandate of left-wing Mayor Manuela Carmena (2015–2019) delivered the renaturalization of the course of the Manzanares across the city.
Open spaces
Madrid has the second highest number of aligned trees in the world, with 248,000 units, only exceeded by Tokyo. Madrid's citizens have access to a green area within a 15-minute walk. Since 1997, green areas have increased by 16%. At present, 8.2% of Madrid's grounds are green areas, meaning that there are 16 m2 (172 sq ft) of green area per inhabitant, far exceeding the 10 m2 (108 sq ft) per inhabitant recommended by the World Health Organization.
A great bulk of the most important parks in Madrid are related to areas originally belonging to the royal assets (including El Pardo, Soto de Viñuelas, Casa de Campo, El Buen Retiro, la Florida and the Príncipe Pío hill, and the Queen's Casino).[92] The other main source for the "green" areas are the bienes de propios [es] owned by the municipality (including the Dehesa de la Villa, the Dehesa de Arganzuela or Viveros). El Retiro is the most visited location of the city.
Trees, woodland and forest
Across the Manzanares, lies the Casa de Campo, a large forested area with more than 1700 hectares (6.6 sq mi) where the Madrid Zoo, and the Parque de Atracciones de Madrid amusement park are located. It was ceded to the municipality following the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931.
The Monte de El Pardo is the largest forested area in the municipality. A holm oak forest covering a surface over 16,000 hectares, it is considered the best preserved mediterranean forest in the Community of Madrid and one of the best preserved in Europe. Already mentioned in the Alfonso XI's Libro de la montería [es] from the mid-14th century, its condition as hunting location linked to the Spanish monarchy help to preserve the environmental value. During the reign of Ferdinand VII the regime of hunting prohibition for the Monte de El Pardo became one of full property and the expropriation of all possessions within its bounds was enforced, with dire consequences for the madrilenians at the time. It is designated as Special Protection Area for bird-life and it is also part of the Regional Park of the High Basin of the Manzanares.
Other large forested areas include the Soto de Viñuelas, the Dehesa de Valdelatas [es] and the Dehesa de la Villa [es]. As of 2015, the most recent big park in the municipality is the Valdebebas Park. Covering a total area of 4.7 km2 (1.8 sq mi), it is sub-divided in a 3.4 km2 (1.3 sq mi) forest park (the Parque forestal de Valdebebas-Felipe VI [es]), a 0.8 km2 (0.31 sq mi) periurban park as well as municipal garden centres and compost plants.
News archive
- In 2018, Madrid Is the City to Watch for Environmental Progress, Jan 3, 2018...citylab.com
Madrid as a democracy lab, Jul 10, 2017...opendemocracy.net
- How Madrid's residents are using open-source urban planning to create shared spaces – and build democracy, Jun 27, 2017...theconversation.com
- Madrid's mayor is determined to clean up its air – by pedestrianising its biggest shopping street, Jan 16, 2017...citymetric.com
Madrid Is Giving Itself a Car Ban For Christmas, Dec 5, 2016...citylab.com
- Madrid is covering itself in plants to help fight rising temperatures, February 3, 2016...fastcoexist.com
- Madrid first city in the world to apply sustainability criteria to parking, August 6, 2014...European Green Capital
- The Madrid P2P Commune, May 22, 2014...Guerrilla Translation!
- Madrid's Big Plan to Swear Off Cars, December 4, 2013...The Atlantic Cities
About Madrid
Madrid is the capital and most populous municipality of Spain. Madrid has almost 3.3 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.8 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and its metropolitan area is the second-largest in the EU. The municipality covers 604.3 km2 (233.3 sq mi) geographical area. Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the central part of the Iberian Peninsula at about 650 m (2,130 ft) above mean sea level. The capital city of both Spain and the surrounding autonomous community of Madrid, it is the political, economic, and cultural centre of the country.
The primitive core of Madrid, a walled military outpost, dates back to the late 9th century, under the Emirate of Córdoba. Conquered by Christians in 1083 or 1085, it consolidated in the Late Middle Ages as a sizeable town of the Crown of Castile. The development of Madrid as an administrative centre was fostered after 1561, as it became the permanent seat of the court of the Hispanic Monarchy. The following centuries were characterised by the reinforcement of Madrid's status within the framework of a centralised form of state-building.
See also
- Topic overview: Networks, Community involvement, Food activism, Community resources, Cycling activism, Environment quality activism, Open spaces activism, Trees, woodland and forest
| Authors | Phil Green |
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| License | CC-BY-SA-4.0 |
| Cite as | Phil Green (2022–2025). "Community action/Madrid". Appropedia. Retrieved November 28, 2025. |