The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, through the Beaches, Rivers, Volunteering and Land Stewardship Programme, has mobilised nearly 6,500 volunteers throughout 2015 in 83 projects organised by 45 land stewardship entities. Thanks to this joint work of entities and volunteers, it has been possible, among other things, to remove more than 60,000 kilos of waste and the planting of more than 5,000 trees.
 
The activities programmed within this initiative have been mostly aimed at land stewardship entities and have focused their efforts on agreements with the Hydrographic Confederations. The new edition of the programme began in March and, during the months of April and May, more than 42 applications for projects had already been received, of which 39 were finally approved, 24 of them in rivers and 15 on beaches, which were launched by 34 entities.
 
Thus, days were organized for the removal and elimination of garbage, actions to improve urban beaches and the recovery of deteriorated areas and different diagnostic activities both to evaluate the state of the rivers of the Peninsula and to conserve and improve river ecosystems or to restore heritage and promote public use.
 
In addition to the activities mentioned above, there are those developed within the framework of a collaboration agreement with different companies interested in the conservation of river and coastal ecosystems. In 2015, the Beaches, Rivers, Volunteering and Land Stewardship Programme actively collaborated in the organisation of volunteering activities with Decathlon and Yves Rocher.
 
Thus, Decathlon organized a simultaneous environmental volunteering day throughout Spain, on October 18, in which more than 3,300 volunteers participated. This day was held in 90 company centers throughout the country, where more than 20,000 kilograms of waste were collected and more than 2,500 trees and seeds were planted. The Biodiversity Foundation Programme coordinated 41 of these activities, which means a total of 1,242 volunteers mobilised by 25 entities, some of which have already joined the programme.
 
Likewise, “The forest of Yves Rocher” has been launched in collaboration with the custodian entity Heliconia, which has mobilized up to 150 volunteers in three days of volunteering in which 2,500 trees of native species have been planted at the Caserío del Henares Environmental Education Center in Madrid.