At the Biodiversity Foundation we promote projects to promote this ecological and fair transition through employment and green entrepreneurship thanks to the Empleaverde Programme and the Emprendeverde Network.

The fifth edition of #Biodirectos – “Solutions to the COVID-19 crisis from rural entrepreneurship and the demographic challenge” has addressed the population challenge facing Spain and in which green entrepreneurship must be the protagonist of a transition towards a more sustainable and decarbonised model, which promotes the restoration of ecosystems and nature-based adaptation measures.

The meeting was attended by Elena Cebrián, Secretary General for the Demographic Challenge of MITECO, who stressed that in the face of the demographic challenge three objectives must be addressed, depopulation, demographic ageing and floating population, regardless of whether it occurs in rural or urban environments.

Cebrián also stressed that “the demographic challenge must be global, transversal and multidisciplinary, and must be coordinated between the different administrations to promote multilevel governance and generate a stable framework of trust”. The General Secretariat for the Demographic Challenge is working on the evaluation of the demographic impact, demographic and cartographic analysis to propose public policies to face this challenge.

Cebrián has set as priorities to advance in this challenge the support for innovation, in topics such as digital transformation or social organization; the promotion of training that is linked to the needs of the territory and training on its historical and natural value so that it is not lost; and breaking paradigms and dichotomies between rural and urban.

The Secretary General for the Demographic Challenge was accompanied at this meeting by Mª Eugenia Sadaba, general director of Plastic Repair System, María Sánchez, field veterinarian and writer, and Franco Llobera, consultant specialising in public policies and social innovation in rural development, who pointed out the need to commit to green entrepreneurship in the process of economic reactivation. Not only because it is the only option that offers a response to the challenges posed by climate change and the loss of biodiversity, but also because it constitutes a field of opportunities for job creation and economic activity in rural areas.

The commitment to a green recovery is directly connected to the challenge posed by the demographic challenge, an issue that must establish a country project that promotes, as a right, equal opportunities, full digital connectivity, the improvement of public services, the simplification of bureaucracy, sustainable mobility and economic diversification that attracts talent. fix population and promote the care and sustainable use of our environment.

At the Biodiversity Foundation we promote projects to promote this ecological and fair transition through employment and green entrepreneurship thanks to the Empleaverde Programme and the Emprendeverde Network. Along these lines, in 2020 two new calls for subsidies have been launched, which will boost employment, the connectivity of our green entrepreneurs and the hiring of unemployed people.

One of the calls, Empleaverde Mejor, endowed with 5.7 million euros, aims to improve the skills of workers in sustainability issues, which will contribute to facing major current challenges such as the crisis generated by COVID-19, the loss of biodiversity, climate change and depopulation. The other call, Empleaverde Emplea, has 5 million euros for the hiring of unemployed people in the field of the green and blue economy.