The Fernando González Bernáldez Interuniversity Foundation is developing a project for the conservation of protected areas in Spain.

The Fernando González Bernáldez Interuniversity Foundation, through the Technical Office of EUROPARC-Spain, has developed the project “Contribution of protected areas to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services in Spain” with the support of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and the Environment.

Among the objectives of this project was to assess the status and trends of protected areas in Spain, their contribution to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services; to provide up-to-date, accessible and attractive information to the professional sector and other agents (scientists, journalists, economists) on the role of protected areas in Spain; to disseminate nationally and internationally the contribution of protected areas in Spain to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

One of the results has been the Europarc Spain Yearbook, a reference document since 2002, to have updated information on the evolution of the system of protected areas in the whole of Spain. The project includes the analysis of the ecosystem services of the Natura 2000 Network, and the assessment of the results of the LIFE projects of the period 2007-2013 in Natura 2000.

The informative nature of the project has made it possible to increase professional and social knowledge about the value of protected areas as the key natural capital in Spain. As well as to analyze the state of development of the network of protected areas and their contribution to ecosystem services and the contribution of LIFE projects to conservation.