The Secretary of State for Rural Affairs and Water and President of the Biodiversity Foundation, a public foundation of the Government of Spain under the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, Josep Puxeu, and the CEO of Ferrovial Agromán, Alejandro de la Joya Ruiz de Velasco, signed an agreement this morning to collaborate in the Global Change Monitoring Programme in the National Parks Network. They were accompanied by the director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Ana Leiva.

The project, to which Ferrovial will contribute €1.5 million, aims to find out about the impacts that climate change can have on the ecosystems of the National Parks. The actions included in this agreement will be carried out in principle in the National Parks of Sierra Nevada, Picos de Europa, and Cabrera.

The objective of this initiative, carried out by the Biodiversity Foundation, the Autonomous National Parks Agency, the General Directorate of the Spanish Office for Climate Change and the State Meteorological Agency, is to develop a system for evaluating and monitoring the ecosystems present in Spanish national parks, based on the information obtained from the collection of data in situ. To this end, among other actions, seventeen weather stations and an oceanographic buoy have been installed. Eight of these stations are located in the Sierra Nevada National Park; eight in the Picos de Europa National Park and two in the Cabrera National Park (a land station and the oceanographic buoy).

This pioneering project will collect climate, air and water quality data in National Parks, and monitor the transformation caused by climate change in ecosystems. The information collected will constitute an open database for use by the national and international scientific community through the Internet, as research material for projects to measure global change that are currently being carried out or that may be developed in these protected natural areas.

This pioneering project will collect climate, air and water quality data in National Parks, and monitor the transformation caused by climate change in ecosystems. The information collected will constitute an open database for use by the national and international scientific community through the Internet, as research material for projects to measure global change that are currently being carried out or that may be developed in these protected natural areas.

In order to implement this action, in 2005 the Biodiversity Foundation signed collaboration agreements with the universities located in the areas of influence of the parks, such as the University of Granada, the University of Oviedo, as well as with the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies, IMEDEA, in which the University of the Balearic Islands and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) participate. These entities provide scientific support and advice for the development of the entire project and for the performance of various studies related to global change. Likewise, the Complutense University of Madrid has carried out the scientific coordination of the studies carried out to date and a preliminary study for the determination of the parameters or indicators for measuring global change in the National Parks.

Ferrovial Agromán is part of one of the world’s leading infrastructure groups, with 104,000 employees and a presence in 43 countries. Ferrovial considers respect for the environment to be an essential component of its activities and objectives, and has an environmental policy aimed at the progressive improvement of environmental performance. For the sixth consecutive year, Ferrovial has been selected for the Dow Jones, DISI World and DISI STOXX sustainability indices.