The Council of Ministers agreed last Friday, at the proposal of the Ministry of the Environment, to formalise the financial commitments adopted at the Sectoral Conference on the Environment held on 2 and 3 of this month and to authorise the transfer of 40,524,630 euros to the Autonomous Communities and the Cities of Ceuta and Melilla to finance programmes for the protection and improvement of the natural environment corresponding to the 2006 financial year.

The meeting of the National Commission for the Protection of Nature held on 26 April 2006 agreed on the criteria for the distribution and territorial distribution of these subsidies, which were subsequently ratified at the meeting of the Sectoral Conference held earlier this month in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

These grants will make it possible to undertake programmes aimed at correcting power lines, recovering endangered species, silviculture against forest fires, sustainable forest management in public and private forests and conserving biodiversity and the Natura 2000 Network.

For the first time, a specific item is enabled for the recovery of endangered species, which in the current year will be allocated to actions aimed at the protection of the Iberian lynx and the Pyrenean brown bear. The actions that will be carried out on power lines are aimed at correcting those that have a special impact on the mortality of endangered bird species, especially the imperial eagle and Bonelli’s eagle.