It is part of the LIFE+ project “European Capitals of Biodiversity” and is aimed at all municipalities in Spain.

The Biodiversity Foundation is launching, this week, the “Capital of Biodiversity” contest, whose main objective is to increase the protection of nature in Spanish municipalities by promoting the initiatives that municipalities direct to the conservation of biodiversity.

The competition is part of the LIFE+ project “European Capitals of Biodiversity”. It has a budget of 1.6 million euros and is 50 percent co-financed by the European Commission. In this edition, the priority issue is land use.

Within the framework of the project, four training workshops are held, aimed at representatives of the municipalities, on the conservation and promotion of biodiversity. They explain the most appropriate tools for the integration of biodiversity into municipal policies and advise those interested in participating in the competition. The schedule is as follows: February 11, in Córdoba; 1 March, in Donostia-San Sebastián; March 18, in Madrid; and March 24 and 25, in Puebla de Sanabria.

Those responsible for its development are the Biodiversity Foundation, in Spain; the German Association for Environmental Protection (DUH); the Regional Centre for the Environment (REC) in Slovakia; the French Regional Agency for Nature and Biodiversity NatureParif; the Lake Balaton Coordination and Development Office (LBDCA), in Hungary, and, at the European level, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and the Regional Office of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

To participate, it is necessary to fill out a questionnaire with 36 questions related to the application of policies and measures for the protection of biodiversity in the municipality, the projects that the city council has carried out in this area and the indicators that measure the biodiversity of the municipality. The questionnaires will be valued out of a total of 100 points.

Both the rules of the contest and the questionnaire can be downloaded on the www.capitaldelabiodiversidad.es website. The deadline for submitting the documentation is May 31, 2011, and must be sent to the Biodiversity Foundation, through the email address capitaldelabiodiversidad@fundacion-biodiversidad.es.

Prior registration is done through the aforementioned website or by calling 91 121 09 26.