The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment has published the Report of the 4th Inventory of Land Stewardship Initiatives of the Spanish State, a census that began in 2008 and which aims to collect the current status and evolution of all stewardship initiatives to help promote the consolidation and expansion of this conservation tool.
 
The data collected by this Inventory show that stewardship continues to grow both in surface area, in entities and in the number of agreements established for the conservation of natural, cultural or landscape values.
 
The total land area dedicated to land stewardship in Spain in 2015 amounted to 550,987.05 hectares (ha), which represents an increase of about 120,000 ha, equivalent to 28% compared to the figures included in the 2013 Inventory, maintaining uninterrupted the growth path started in the first inventories.
 
In 2015 the number of custody entities has also experienced a notable increase compared to the figures for 2013, reaching a total of 216 entities, compared to the 188 included in the previous Inventory, which represents an increase of 15%.
 
The evolution of the number of agreements reflects, once again, the important development that land stewardship has in the Spanish State. The Inventory includes 2,686 agreements spread throughout the Spanish territory, which shows an increase of 696 agreements compared to the figures for 2013 (1,990 agreements), which represents an increase of around 25%. The increase in the number of agreements in the communities of Catalonia, Andalusia, the Basque Country and the Valencian Community stands out.
 
Among the novelties with respect to previous versions, it stands out that, for the first time, the most outstanding elements of interest of these spaces, such as threatened or endemic species of fauna or flora and habitats of community interest. 
 
Another very relevant novelty is the incorporation of two new chapters: on the one hand, it deals with the custody of the natural hunting heritage, a modality promoted by local hunting societies that sign voluntary agreements with owners based on a methodology shared with the custody; On the other hand, the marine and coastal custody is incorporated in a differentiated way, which has the maritime-terrestrial public domain as its territorial scope.
 
The Inventory of Land Stewardship Initiatives of the Spanish State, which is available on the website of the Land Stewardship Platform, is one of the vital tasks of the Land Stewardship Platform. It is the only reliable source, at the national level or at the national level, of information on institutions and custody agreements, and is a key tool for analysing the state of the art and its trends and proposing strategic lines for the future. For this reason, the Biodiversity Foundation pays special attention to progressively improve both the quality of the data and its treatment, seeking to offer updated information on the state of custody in our country.