The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) have launched a campaign to raise awareness among the population about the importance of preserving biodiversity. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) have launched a campaign to raise awareness among the population about the importance of preserving biodiversity.
 
Through a video, entitled “Biodiversity in your life“, the importance of preserving biodiversity in the urban environment and the positive benefits it generates on our health, our economy and the environment are presented in a graphic and didactic way.
 
The video, which was presented on the occasion of the Meeting of Local Governments + Biodiversity, is available to all municipalities that wish to do so that, with its dissemination, they contribute to increasing awareness and environmental education.
 
It is a joint initiative of the Ministry and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, specifically, the Network of Local Governments + Biodiversity, a unique network in Europe that brings together more than 200 City Councils that are committed to Biodiversity, involving almost 22 million citizens.
 
This FEMP Network, chaired by the mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Juan José Cardona, aims to conserve and safeguard ecosystems, prevent the destruction of natural resources and increase the biodiversity of urban environments, especially in the face of the effects of climate change, as well as to get cities to adopt the necessary actions and plans to stop the loss of biodiversity by 2020.
 
Importance of Awareness
For the FEMP and the Ministry, the campaign “Biodiversity in your life” is an instrument that will make it possible to raise awareness among citizens of the importance of having an adequate environment with a high degree of biological diversity, and of how fundamental their small acts are in their day-to-day lives, focused on preserving the environment.
 
In fact, for the president of the FEMP and mayor of Santander, Íñigo de la Serna, “the goal of local governments is to promote policies for the conservation of biodiversity and natural heritage, but always hand in hand with citizens, seeking their involvement and achieving a real commitment between all of us that safeguards our environment and our quality of life”. In his opinion, “tools like this are of great help in achieving this goal.”
 
Biodiversity in Spain
Spain is the European country with the greatest biodiversity, a real natural treasure that we must preserve. Its territory has a great climatic and orographic diversity that allows the configuration of ecosystems of great richness. All this makes it the European country with the greatest variety of mammals and reptiles and the third in amphibians and fish.
 
The Spanish territory has 10,000 different species of plants, it is estimated that there are about 20,000 species of fungi, lichens and mosses and between 8,000 and 9,000 species of vascular plants (ferns and flowering plants) that represent 80% of those existing in the European Union and almost 60% of those found throughout the continent. Of this last group, more than 6,500 are native plants, with about 1,500 unique endemic species in the world and another 500 endemic species shared with North Africa.
 
In terms of fauna, the Iberian Peninsula is also characterised by having the greatest biotic wealth in Western Europe with a total of between 50,000 and 60,000 animal species, more than 50% of the species existing in the European Union. Of these, 770 species are vertebrates, excluding marine fish. The Canary Islands are home to 44% of endemic animal species due to their isolation. In addition, Spain enjoys a great variety of habitats, having 121 different types, which represents 54% of the total habitats existing throughout the European Union.