The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, a public foundation of the Government of Spain, under the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, Ana Leiva, and the secretary general of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), Gabriel Álvarez, have signed today in Vilvestre, Salamanca, a collaboration agreement with the mayor of the city, Manuel Domínguez, for the recovery of cultivated and wild biodiversity in the area of the Arribes de Duero Natural Park, on its Salamanca side.

The project to which 199,385 euros are allocated is an initiative of the City Council of Vilvestre, which pursues the conservation and revaluation of biodiversity in the territorial area of the Arribes del Duero in Salamanca. The aim is to influence the recovery of a model of land management with an agroecological approach that integrates different sustainable agricultural and forestry systems with natural systems. In addition, efforts will be made to highlight the enormous number of native varieties cultivated, while preserving the wild species associated with these systems.

The specific objectives include the study of the natural heritage of the region in terms of its biological diversity and traditional knowledge about the latter; the in situ and ex situ conservation of the phylogenetic material collected and cataloguing of the knowledge associated with the sustainable use of local natural resources and the awareness of the population in biodiversity conservation and its potential as a resource for sustainable local economic initiatives.

This project was one of the best valued in the “I Competition of projects for the increase of biodiversity”, whose purpose is to finance actions that harmonize conservation and sustainability policies to increase biodiversity. In particular, the aim is to promote the conservation of biodiversity in rural areas.

The “I Competition for projects for the increase of Biodiversity” is part of the agreements signed between the Biodiversity Foundation, the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces. Thus, the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, and the FEMP signed an agreement for the implementation of a Common Strategy for the Preservation of Biodiversity, with the aim of promoting precise actions for the balanced integration of social, economic and environmental factors aimed at achieving a sustainable use of resources and the preservation of biodiversity in the field of Local Administrations.