The general director of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of the Environment, María Artola, has participated in the inauguration of the “Conference on Financing of Protected Areas in the Mediterranean”. Together with María Artola, Juan Espadas, Deputy Minister of the Environment of the Junta de Andalucía, Ricardo Martínez, Director General of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation, AECI, and Nikita Lopoukhine, President of the World Commission on Protected Areas of the World Conservation Union, IUCN, have inaugurated this international meeting.

The Biodiversity Foundation, the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation, AECI, and the World Conservation Union, IUCN, are organising this meeting that today and tomorrow will bring together more than 50 experts from all over the Mediterranean area in Seville and whose objective is to improve cooperation and knowledge in the field of sustainable financing of protected areas.

This international seminar seeks to bring partners, governments, cooperation agencies and the private sector to share experiences on sustainable finance, as well as to provide information on funding resources for protected areas in the region, to facilitate the creation of contact networks between Mediterranean countries and funding agencies to foster the exchange of knowledge and lessons learned, and to highlight the various experiences in the region. financing in protected areas.

During these two days, topics such as “Mechanisms for sustainable financing: an overview”, Experiences on the sustainable financing of protected areas”, “Sustainable financing initiatives of cooperation agencies: a vision of the future” and “Using the tourism market for the financing of protected areas: working with the private sector” will be addressed.