The company, based in Cambre (A Coruña), is dedicated to discovering new species of food seaweed on the Galician coast, in addition to disseminating its knowledge through various products and conserving natural algae banks.

The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Ana Leiva, participated, on Friday, July 15, in an event held in the Porto-Muiños cooking classroom, in Cambre (A Coruña). It is the food company that won the second edition of the Biodiversity Foundation Award for Leadership and Innovation, in the category of Entrepreneurs. Rosa María Mirás, manager of Porto-Muiños, also participated in the event.

The Biodiversity Foundation values the advantages of valuing local biodiversity as a vehicle for generating employment. In this sense, it recognises the Porto-Muiños business initiative and its contribution to the local economy and gastronomic culture, to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Porto-Muiños is dedicated to discovering new species of seaweed on the Galician coast, to disseminate its knowledge by introducing them into various products for restaurateurs and consumers, as well as to conserve natural banks of algae, developing its own cultivation. In addition, the company harvests wild populations of wakame, a potentially invasive algae from Asia, thus contributing to the control of its population on the Galician coasts, and carries out pioneering research projects in the cultivation of food seaweed at sea.

The Biodiversity Foundation Award for Leadership and Innovation, which has recognized the work of Porto-Muiños, recognizes those projects that apply a business model based on the sustainable use of natural resources, developing nature conservation actions and applying innovative techniques to fight against pollution of the marine environment.

Endowed with a total amount of 101,000 euros co-financed with EAFRD funds, the Biodiversity Foundation Awards for Environmental Leadership, Innovation and Communication recognize the work of entrepreneurs in the rural, marine or environmental fields who make a firm commitment to the sustainable management of natural resources, as well as communicators and creators who contribute to involving society in the improvement of the environment.

In its second edition, the Biodiversity Foundation Awards for Environmental Leadership, Innovation and Communication have included two new categories to reward organizations that carry out nature conservation actions and people or entities that develop techniques to fight against pollution of the marine environment. In addition, the awards have been extended and a first and second prize has been awarded per category.