The Minister of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs, Elena Espinosa, chaired the 14th Council of the National Parks Network, where she highlighted the positive effects of Plan E on National Parks, which has allowed a cumulative average of 2,123 jobs.

In this Council, whose celebration has coincided with the European Parks Day, the minister has also highlighted the enormous effort made in the management of the funds assigned to the National Parks Agency, which has been the second body in volume of investment of the MARM, having currently reached a certified budget of 96%.

Within the framework of this meeting, the new Master Plan of the National Parks Network has been presented to the Council. This plan has already been informed by the Parks Boards, in the context of a commitment to promote it, since it is the basic instrument for the coordination of the Network that must be approved by Royal Decree.

The Council has also been informed about the R+D+i Programme of the National Parks Network, which has been developed since 2002, fulfilling the objective of promoting better scientific knowledge in matters related to the National Parks Network.

This programme is part of the National R+D+i Programme, and since its inception it has financed 106 projects for an amount of 6.8 million euros. The high number of applications has been highlighted, which demonstrates the great interest that this plan arouses among the scientific community.

On the other hand, during the meeting, the actions that are being developed for the implementation of the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan of the National Parks Network were reviewed, as well as the activities of the Network in terms of monitoring global change.

The last point addressed at the meeting was international cooperation, highlighting that, among the objectives of the Network, the strengthening of the external image and the international role of the policies developed in the field of National Parks is included. In this sense, the main lines of work in bilateral and multilateral cooperation, the activities of the Committee and the MaB Programme -Man and Biosphere- of UNESCO and the Network of Spanish Biosphere Reserves have been described.