The Vice-President and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, chaired today, Thursday 23 July, the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Biodiversity Foundation, in which the appointment of Elena Pita as the new director of the institution was approved.

An agronomist and Master in farm economics and natural resources, Pita has a long international career and extensive experience in biodiversity conservation and the fight against climate change. He has worked in more than 30 countries, and for entities such as the United Nations (UN), in its Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean; the European Commission (EuropAid); or the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation.

With this appointment, a new stage opens for the Foundation, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, which will focus on the promotion of nature-based solutions as a fundamental element of a new model of prosperity; the establishment of strategic alliances and bridges with Science; and the integration of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services into other sectors of society, among other aspects.

During the meeting, the new configuration of the Board of Trustees was also approved, made up of 12 members, including the general director of Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification; Jorge Marquínez; the director of the Spanish Office for Climate Change, Valvanera Ularqui; the general director of Quality and Environmental Assessment, Ismael Aznar; the Secretary General for the Demographic Challenge, Elena Cebrián; the undersecretary of MITECO, Miguel González Suela; and the director of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, Javier Tomás Ruiz.

The Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, who will serve as first vice-president, the Director General of the Coast and the Sea, Ana María Oñoro; the Secretary General of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Alicia Villauriz Iglesias; the prosecutor of the Chamber against crimes related to territorial planning and the protection of historical heritage, the environment and forest fires, Antonio Vercher, and the head of the Nature Protection Service of the Civil Guard, Antonio Tocón.

The new Directorate-General for Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification, to which the Biodiversity Foundation has recently been attached, assumes the second vice-presidency. This Directorate has new competencies such as marine biodiversity, the illegal trade of endangered species or forests. All this with the aim of strengthening and giving greater coherence to the Ministry’s actions in the field of biodiversity conservation.