The Participation Committee of the Land Stewardship Platform (PCT) met today at the headquarters of the Biodiversity Foundation in Madrid.

The Participation Committee of the Land Stewardship Platform (PCT) met today in Madrid at the headquarters of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and the Environment. The meeting took stock of the actions implemented within the framework of land stewardship during 2016, the year in which the Biodiversity Foundation has collaborated with land stewardship through its call for grants, supporting initiatives developed in this field and through the programme “Beaches, rivers, volunteering and stewardship of the territory” and the LIFE+ Cantabrian Capercaillie program, which ended last December 2016.

The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Sonia Castañeda, who welcomed the attendees to the meeting, highlighted the work that the Foundation has been carrying out with the Land Stewardship Platform, whose objective is to “respond to the different needs of the land stewardship movement”. The Platform serves as a “meeting place for all the networks and stewardship entities that carry out their activity in the Spanish State”, giving them support to work on voluntary nature conservation initiatives based on agreements between property owners and stewardship entities.

During 2016 the Land Stewardship Platform has published the report with the results of the IV Inventory of Land Stewardship Initiatives, a manual on the participation of public administrations to reach land stewardship agreements and the guide on European funding for land stewardship. In addition, he has continued to work on the creation of the register of land stewardship entities and advising numerous stewardship entities and owners interested in establishing agreements, as well as technicians from different autonomous communities. The Platform supported the Forum of Land Stewardship Networks and Entities (FRECT) in the celebration from November 2 to 5 in Seville of the VI State Conference on Land Stewardship, in which it actively participated.

The meeting also presented the Platform’s work plan for 2017, the year in which the PCT will celebrate its 10th anniversary and in which it will publish a text on business and land stewardship, in addition to the V inventory of land stewardship experiences and work on the creation of synergies on marine stewardship. In addition, an information day on adaptation to climate change will be held for land stewardship entities.