The Environment Committee of the Congress of Deputies has approved the draft Law on Natural Heritage and Biodiversity. The Commission met with full legislative competence, so the text will be sent to the Senate.

The basic principles that inspire this law are the maintenance of essential ecological processes and basic vital ecosystems; the preservation of genetic diversity; the orderly use of resources to ensure the sustainable use of species and ecosystems; and the preservation of the variety, uniqueness and beauty of natural ecosystems and landscape. To achieve these objectives, it proposes the preparation of a National Strategic Plan for Natural Heritage and Biodiversity to establish and define the general criteria and standards of a basic nature that regulate the conservation, sustainable use and, where appropriate, the restoration of heritage and natural resources.

It also includes the creation of the National Council for Natural Heritage and Biodiversity, as a body for public participation in the field of conservation and sustainable use, and the National Commission for Natural Heritage and Biodiversity, as a consultative and cooperation body on the protection of natural heritage and biodiversity between the State and the Autonomous Communities.

Another noteworthy aspect is the organisation of the National Inventory of the Natural Heritage of Biodiversity in order to know the natural heritage and the state of conservation of Spanish biodiversity, the causes that determine its changes and the measures that can be adopted for its management and preservation. In addition to reinforcing the protection of the spaces that are part of the Natura 2000 Network, it regulates the figure of Marine Protected Areas and the ecological corridors between natural spaces of singular relevance.