The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment has published four of the seven calls for grants that will be launched throughout 2016, to carry out activities in the field of terrestrial biodiversity, marine and coastal biodiversity; in the fight against marine litter; to contribute to the national co-financing of the European Union’s LIFE programme; and for the promotion of environmental information in the media. The amount of these first four calls for aid amounts to 2.3 million euros.
 
The calls associated with European funds will be published soon. Thus, within the framework of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, projects will be supported to strengthen the sustainability of the Spanish fisheries and aquaculture sector through the conservation of marine biodiversity. On the other hand, and within the framework of the Employment, Training and Education Operational Programme, a new Empleaverde Programme will be launched to give continuity to the efforts and successes achieved and to launch new lines of work in the generation of green employment. Finally, and as in previous years, the call for the development of collaboration and representation activities before the General State Administration, the European Union and international organizations in the field of biodiversity, climate change and sustainable development will be launched.
 
The call for the granting of aid, on a competitive basis, for the implementation of activities in the field of terrestrial, marine and coastal biodiversity 2016, has a maximum endowment of up to one million euros, 800,000 thousand euros for terrestrial biodiversity and 200,000 for marine and coastal biodiversity.
 
As a novelty, this year a specific call for grants is opened on a direct grant basis for the co-financing of projects supported by the LIFE programme in the field of biodiversity. The purpose of these grants is, therefore, the co-financing of LIFE projects approved by the European Commission in aspects related to nature and biodiversity.
 
The call for the granting of aid, on a competitive basis, for the activities carried out within the framework of the collaboration agreement between the Biodiversity Foundation and Ecoembes for the fight against marine litter has also been published. On 15 February, the Biodiversity Foundation and Ecoembes signed an agreement whose actions include the development of this specific call for aid, which will support the programmes of measures of the Marine Strategies in this area.
 
Finally, grants have been announced to promote the publication of information with environmental content in the media, in order to achieve greater environmental awareness in society, given the role played by the media as providers of information and generators of opinion among citizens.