The Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, Isabel García Tejerina, stressed today in Madrid that foundations are called upon to play “an important role” in the conservation of natural capital. Isabel García Tejerina inaugurated this morning, at the headquarters of the Ministry of San Juan de la Cruz, the conference “The role of Foundations in the conservation of natural capital”. At the event, the minister was accompanied by the president of the Spanish Association of Foundations; the Secretary of State for the Environment, Federico Ramos, senior officials of the Ministry and representatives of foundations.
 
In his speech, García Tejerina assured that working in favour of the protection of the environment is also contributing to the sustainable development of economic activities that take place in the natural environment. In this sense, the minister assured that “public administrations have the obligation to protect nature, and we must do so based on the indispensable collective solidarity”. The objective of today’s conference was to give relevance to this collective support provided by foundations. It is, he said, “to share experiences and knowledge around our common interest in improving the environment”.
 
In this context, the minister stressed the need to move towards a more sustainable development model, “based on the more rational and efficient use of natural resources”. A model, he added, “capable of recognising the scarcity of resources and preserving them, at the service of growth and social welfare”.
 
To this end, García Tejerina believes that foundations are called upon to play an important role, as they have extensive experience in maximising the social utility of their activities. To illustrate the social and economic importance of foundations in Spain, García Tejerina commented that, according to the Second Report on the Foundation Sector in Spain, of June 2014, there are more than 29 million final and direct beneficiaries of the activities of the 14,000 organizations registered in our country.
 
He also commented that the foundations mobilize more than 108,000 volunteers annually, people who dedicate time and effort to carry out work of general interest without remuneration, to which must be added some 70,000 employers who do not receive remuneration. Specifically, the minister pointed out that about 10% of foundations have as their main purpose the defense of the environment. Of these, only the 16 that make up the Association of Foundations for the Conservation of Nature mobilise more than 82,000 people, of which almost 6,000 are volunteers.
 
As he highlighted, “these foundations actively collaborate with public administrations, which allows us to achieve results that, alone, would not be easy to achieve”. In addition to the work carried out by the Ministry with foundations, García Tejerina referred to the promotion of various projects “to involve our companies in the task of achieving a low-carbon economy”.