The Advisory Council of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment today held its third meeting since its creation. The Advisory Council of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment held its third meeting today – the second this year – in which the strategic actions planned for 2015 were addressed, as well as the balance and assessment of those already undertaken in 2014. At the meeting, chaired by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Federico Ramos, special emphasis was placed on the promotion of green employment as one of the main drivers of the Foundation’s activity for 2015.
 
The members of the Advisory Council discussed the most important issues of the Biodiversity Foundation, such as the new Empleaverde Programme 2014-2020; the new programmes managed thanks to Community funds, such as the European Social Fund and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund; or the new Biodiversity and Entrepreneurship Innovation Centre, which seeks to become a benchmark in green coworking in Spain.

The Empleaverde Programme 2014-2020, co-financed by the European Social Fund, has been assessed by the Advisory Board, and will constitute one of the main lines of work aimed at improving employment linked to the environment.
 
The actions framed in this line of work will focus on promoting green employment among the unemployed and young people. Likewise, support for green entrepreneurship will be reiterated, both for the unemployed with the intention of setting up a company and for those who have already started their project.
 
In this sense, another of the initiatives that the Advisory Council has positively valued has been the launch, in 2015, of a biodiversity and entrepreneurship innovation center. The center will house entrepreneurs and NGOs, using the space as a coworking area and different activities and events. It will also have a hospitality business specialising in organic gastronomy and an area of 80 m2 for events, as well as three multipurpose rooms.

In addition to activities for 2015, the Council also commented on the activities carried out by the Biodiversity Foundation in 2014.  
 
With regard to environmental conservation actions, the recent presentation to the European Commission of the Integrated LIFE project for the management of the marine Natura 2000 Network stands out. This is an initiative that would significantly increase the effectiveness and size of the Natura 2000 Network. The identification of the project has been important from a collaborative point of view since it has received 116 contributions from almost 50 scientific, fisheries, conservationist and business organizations that have improved the proposal, in addition to 27 letters of support.
 
The celebration of the awards ceremony corresponding to the III Edition of the Responsible Beach Bars and the II Edition of the Emprendeverde Network Awards, both scheduled for October and November, respectively, has also been discussed.
 
The Advisory Council of the Biodiversity Foundation is made up of 15 professionals of recognized prestige in the environmental, scientific, business and communication fields, who participate voluntarily and altruistically.
 
This Council is made up of Antonio Abril, Valentín Alfaya, Juan Luis Arsuaga, Carmen Bieger, Juan Luis Cano, Carlos Duarte, José Luis de Miguel, Lynda Mansson, Xavier Pastor, Luis Rivera, Achim Steiner, Alicia Torrego, Fernando Valladares, Víctor Viñuales and Jeremy Wates.