The Canal de Castilla Site of Community Importance (SCI) encompasses the entire route of the Canal de Castilla, including the channel, banks, and associated vegetation, extending for over two hundred kilometers through the provinces of Palencia, Burgos, and Valladolid. This protected area recognizes the natural value acquired by a major historical hydraulic infrastructure that, over time, has evolved from its original function of navigation and grain transport to become a stable and highly naturalized aquatic environment.
Built between the 18th and 19th centuries, the canal now features a permanent water surface and banks colonized by riparian woodlands, primarily poplar and willow groves, as well as herbaceous communities and aquatic vegetation adapted to calm waters. This continuity of vegetation and water makes the canal a true ecological corridor, essential for the connectivity of species in a landscape dominated by intensive cereal farming.
The Canal de Castilla Site of Community Importance (SCI) harbors habitats of community interest linked to rivers and naturalized canals, providing refuge, food, and migration routes for numerous fauna species, including fish, amphibians, aquatic invertebrates, riverine birds, and mammals such as the otter. Its function as a continuous green corridor is key to biodiversity conservation in Tierra de Campos and surrounding areas.
This protected natural area also overlaps with a Site of Cultural Interest, which reinforces its uniqueness as an example of integration between historical and natural heritage. The Canal de Castilla not only shapes the territory from a hydraulic and landscape perspective, but also acts as a unifying element connecting towns, ecosystems, and heritage sites, establishing itself today as a leading ecological and cultural corridor in Castile and León.
