The Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, today chaired the meeting of our Board of Trustees, which was held at the headquarters of the Ministry and in which our Action Plan for 2020 was approved. Among these actions, the calls for aid and subsidies approved, whose amount amounts to 17.2 million euros, stand out. Of this figure, 7.9 million will be allocated to promote the ecological and fair transition through projects that promote employment and the green economy; 6.2 million to improve the environmental sustainability of the fisheries and aquaculture sector, and the rest, more than three million euros, will be allocated to the conservation of terrestrial and marine biodiversity, as well as to climate change adaptation projects.

This 2020 Action Plan includes the development of more than 30 projects, including various initiatives co-financed with European funds, such as LIFE Shara, Mistic Seas III and LIFE IP INTEMARES, the largest marine conservation project in Europe.

As the most outstanding initiatives of LIFE INTEMARES, the governance strategy of the marine Natura 2000 Network will be finalized in 2020 and pilot projects will be launched for its implementation. Likewise, the management plans of 9 Sites of Community Importance in the Valencian Community and 24 in the Canary Islands, the Master Plan of the Network of Marine Protected Areas and the processes for the development of strategies and plans for the conservation of species will continue. The development of a study on the vulnerability of the marine environment to climate change and the environmental education programme will also begin.

MORE THAN 17 MILLION EUROS IN CALLS FOR AID

Thus, we will publish calls for grants and subsidies to support the development of projects for biodiversity conservation, adaptation to climate change or promotion of the green economy, reorienting the objectives of some of these calls.

This Board of Trustees has approved a first package of calls for aid and subsidies by the Empleaverde Program endowed with 7.8 million, which will place special emphasis on promoting the just transition in sectors linked to the green economy and supporting the hiring of unemployed people in this area. There will also be a call to promote sustainable fishing activities within the framework of the Pleamar Program, with an amount of 6.2 million euros. For projects included in the terrestrial biodiversity line, 1.5 million euros will be allocated, 1.2 million euros for marine biodiversity projects, with specific support lines for projects to adapt biodiversity to climate change, and €400,000 to support international conservation policies together with environmental organizations.

In addition, within the framework of LIFE SHARA, and with the aim of strengthening adaptation to climate change and increasing resilience in Spain and Portugal, in 2020 the Iberian Conference on Adaptation to Climate Change will be held, 15 narratives on successful experiences in adaptation will be developed, the new version of the AdapteCCA platform will be launched and sectoral seminars will continue. training and informative breakfasts on the subject.

Synergies with the nearly 20 scientific societies will also be strengthened to promote the conservation and knowledge of biodiversity and geodiversity.

This will also be the year of the elaboration together with CENEAM of the Environmental Sustainability Action Plan through a broad participatory process. At the same time, the Biodiversity Foundation will relaunch other projects of its own such as the Environmental Volunteering Programme, the Land Stewardship Platform, the Spanish Aquaculture Observatory or the Emprendeverde Network, which already has more than 9,000 entrepreneurs working within the framework of the green and blue economy.

Likewise, during 2020, the Biodiversity Foundation will continue to record and offset its entire carbon footprint.