Coinciding with the celebration of the International Day for Biological Diversity, on 22 May, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge is launching #Biodirectos, a series of online meetings, broadcast live and simultaneously on the different social media channels (Twitter, Facebook and YouTube) of the Biodiversity Foundation.

The aim of these meetings, organised by the Ministry through the Biodiversity Foundation, is to raise awareness of the important role that biodiversity plays in relation to human health, as well as to discuss various issues related to the opportunities offered by a green reconstruction after the global crisis generated by COVID-19. This cycle will consist of various meetings, in some of which representatives of MITECO will participate, and will be held over the coming months.

The first meeting “Biodiversity: an ally to stop pandemics” will take place on May 22, at 12:00 p.m., with a duration of one hour, and will aim to establish a debate on the effects of biodiversity loss and its link with the appearance and spread of pandemics such as the one we are experiencing.

In this first Biodirecto, which will be moderated by the political scientist and professor of Sociology Cristina Monge, the general director of Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Jorge Marquínez, will participate. Fernando Valladares, a scientist at the CSIC, and Julio Díaz, an expert at the National School of Health of the Carlos III Health Institute, will also take part.