The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Ana Leiva, inaugurated today in Gernika, Bizkaia, the workshop “Tools for the integration of biodiversity in municipal policies”, together with the director of Biodiversity and Environmental Participation of the Basque Government, Germán Alonso.
The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Ana Leiva, inaugurated today in Gernika, Bizkaia, the workshop “Tools for the integration of biodiversity in municipal policies”, together with the director of Biodiversity and Environmental Participation of the Basque Government, Germán Alonso.
The Gernika-Lumo workshop is the first of four workshops that will take place between March and April, with the aim of making it easier for city councils to submit candidacies to the “Capital of Biodiversity” competition of the Biodiversity Foundation, whose registration is open until 30 April, in four categories (according to the amount of population of each municipality). The “Capital of Biodiversity” competition aims to protect the natural heritage in Spanish municipalities, through the promotion of conservation initiatives.
In this sense, the workshops will provide local managers with the necessary tools to launch or intensify their efforts for the protection of biodiversity. More than 50 people from 23 municipalities in Aragon, Cantabria, Castilla y León, La Rioja and the Basque Country are participating in the meeting in Gernika.
Designed specifically for local authorities, mayors, department directors, technicians and experts with direct responsibility for decision-making, the workshop agenda addresses the integration of biodiversity protection into municipal regulations and planning instruments; the design of measures for the conservation and protection of biodiversity; communication techniques for carrying out awareness-raising campaigns and financing instruments for local biodiversity protection initiatives.
During the day in Gernika and the following ones (in Seville, on March 16; Madrid, on April 13 and Gandía, on April 19) will be informed in detail about the characteristics and requirements of participation in the “Capital of Biodiversity” contest. That is, the municipalities that are interested in participating in the contest will be attended to in a personalized way.
A pilot experience with European projection
The competition is part of the LIFE+ project “European Capitals of Biodiversity”, has a budget of 1.6 million euros and is co-financed by the European Commission at 50 percent. In addition to the launch of the competition, the project includes these four training workshops for municipalities on issues related to the conservation and promotion of biodiversity during the first four months of 2010.
It is a pilot experience that will be carried out simultaneously in five countries. Those responsible for its development are the Biodiversity Foundation, from Spain; the German Association for Environmental Protection (DUH); the Regional Environment Centre (REC) in Slovakia; the French Regional Agency for Nature and Biodiversity NatureParif; the Lake Balaton Coordination and Development Office (LBDCA) of 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).
Through this competition, the measures that the municipalities implement for the correct conservation of biological diversity will be evaluated through their responses around five aspects: green spaces; planning instruments for the protection of biodiversity; biodiversity in agriculture, forests and inland waters; organization, cooperation and awareness, and monitoring of biodiversity. In this edition of the contest, priority will be given to green spaces, so questions related to this topic will obtain more points.
