The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, a public foundation of the Government of Spain, under the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, Ana Leiva, signed collaboration agreements today in Bilbao with the manager of the Association of Environmental Industries of the Basque Country (ACLIMA), Jose Luis Aurrecoechea; with the president of the Technical Association for Waste Management, Urban Cleaning and the Environment (ATEGRUS), Julián Uriarte Jaureguízar, and with the general director of the AZTI Tecnalia Foundation, Rogelio Pozo Carro, to develop projects that promote employment and good environmental practices in that Autonomous Community, within the framework of the Empleaverde Program.

The event was also attended by the Sub-Delegate of the Government in Vizcaya, Miguel Ángel Fernández Pérez, and the director of the Asmoz Foundation of Eusko Ikaskuntza-Society of Basque Studies, Luis Maria Zaldua. The Society of Basque Studies was a beneficiary of the Empleaverde Programme in the 2008-2009 edition with the project “Good livestock practices to conserve and improve the pastures of the Aralar and Aizkorri-Aratz Natural Parks”, which is currently being executed.

The Biodiversity Foundation, as the managing body of the European Social Fund (ESF), allocates 630,719 euros to promote job creation and the improvement of the environment in the Basque Country.

This investment will be used to develop several projects. Among them, it is worth highlighting “Itzulbide” of the Association Cluster of Environmental Industries of the Basque Country (ACLIMA) which aims to promote photovoltaic solar energy installations on land recovered from clogged and closed landfills and on the roofs of industrial waste treatment facilities. The aim is to train workers in the waste management sector and the environmental engineering services sector who develop waste infrastructures on the possibilities derived from the integration of photovoltaic solar energy production equipment within their facilities.

In this sense, another of the initiatives approved within the framework of the Empleaverde Program 2009-2010 for the region is that of the Technical Association for Waste Management, Urban Cleaning and the Environment (ATEGRUS), which proposes a labor reconversion of workers to the waste management sector.

For its part, the AZTI Foundation proposes the “Zuvisost” project. In this case, it is aimed at workers in the food industry, with vocational training actions in sustainability and eco-innovation. In this way, the area of production of alcoholic beverages (wine) and non-alcoholic beverages (juices) will be affected.

In addition, the projects of the Confederation of Forestry Organizations of Spain, which is committed to sustainable management with training actions among owners of forest exploitations, will be carried out in the Basque Country; of Europarc Spain and the Fernando González Bernáldez Interuniversity Foundation for Natural Spaces (FUNGOBE), which will launch ENPlea Sostenible, in protected areas, and that of COAG Iniciativa Rural to train workers in the compatibility of livestock management and wildlife.