The Advisory Council of the Land Stewardship Platform of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment held its 7th meeting today to assess the actions undertaken during 2014 in this line of action and to propose the Platform’s work plan for 2015. The meeting was chaired by the director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Sonia Castañeda, who recalled “the Foundation’s commitment to land stewardship, as we consider it to be a very valid conservation tool and which we support through several projects”.

The meeting was attended by 16 entities, of which 13 are linked to land stewardship and another 3 belong to the different general directorates of the Ministries of Defence and Agriculture, Food and the Environment.

At the meeting, special emphasis was placed on the actions that the Ministry has been developing for years in the area of land stewardship. In this sense, the Foundation’s call for grants has been highlighted, which in its 2014 edition has allocated more than € 277,000 to stewardship projects.

Likewise, the work of the Beaches, Rivers, Volunteering and Land Stewardship Program, also promoted by the Biodiversity Foundation, which since 2012 has carried out more than 300 actions linked to this line of work, mobilizing more than 16,000 volunteers, has been valued.

The meeting also highlighted the importance of land stewardship in other projects developed by the Foundation, such as LIFE+ Capercaillie and ENPI-ECOSAFIMED, which incorporate, in some of their activities, this conservation tool. In the case of the first, 30 stewardship agreements have been signed to date, while under the second project marine stewardship agreements are planned with fishermen from Spain, Italy and Tunisia.

With regard to the initiatives contemplated for 2015, the meeting addressed some actions such as the development of the Manual on stewardship and administrations, the publication of land stewardship initiatives, the preparation of the IV inventory of land stewardship agreements and entities and the support of the Biodiversity Foundation to international initiatives such as the consolidation of the European network.