The Advisory Council of the Biodiversity Foundation has held its first meeting at the headquarters of the Foundation, after its creation on July 25, 2013. The meeting was chaired by the Secretary of State for the Environment and Vice-President of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, Federico Ramos, in an event in which the director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Sonia Castañeda, also participated.

The Advisory Council of the Biodiversity Foundation has held its first meeting at the headquarters of the Foundation, after its creation on July 25, 2013. The meeting was chaired by the Secretary of State for the Environment and Vice-President of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, Federico Ramos, in an event in which the director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Sonia Castañeda, also participated.

The aim of this first meeting was to gather the contributions of the advisory members on the activity of the Biodiversity Foundation and on those projects with the greatest projection for the institution, with the aim that these contributions enrich the strategy to be followed by the Foundation in 2014 and 2015. Among the projects discussed at the meeting are those linked to the protection of the marine environment and the Emprendeverde Network, a specific project to support entrepreneurs.  

The Advisory Council is made up of 15 professionals from various sectors, related to their aims and principles of action. The members of the Board participate in their personal capacity, based on their merits and professional career, and do not represent the entity or company in which they work. Its functions are consultation and advice.

Representatives of the field of science and knowledge were Juan Luis Arsuaga, palaeontologist and laureate of a Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research, and José Luis de Miguel, a physicist whose career is linked to the General Foundation of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

From the environmental field, Carlos Martín-Novella, on behalf of Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme; Jeremy Wates, with a long career at the Aarhus Convention and currently Secretary General of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB); Lynda Mansson, an economist who is active in the European Environment Donor Group and currently Director General of the MAVA Foundation; Víctor Viñuales, sociologist, co-founder and executive director of Ecology and Development (ECODES); and Xavier Pastor, marine biologist, senior vice president and executive director of Oceana in Europe.

Also present at the meeting were representatives of the business sector such as Valentín Alfaya, Director of Quality and Environment at the Ferrrovial Group and PhD in Biology dedicated to the construction, infrastructure and services sector; Alicia Torrego, a physicist who directs the organization of the National Congress of the Environment (CONAMA); and Luis Rivera, director of the José Manuel Entrecanales Foundation for innovation in sustainability, which in addition to carrying out a series of social action activities, acts as a business angel in companies oriented to innovation and sustainability.

From the field of communication, Juan Luis Cano, journalist, president of the Gomaespuma Foundation, which works on early childhood education programs for children living in situations of social and family precariousness in Nicaragua and Sri Lanka; and Carmen Bieger, executive director of the Antena 3 Foundation, a lawyer linked to the field of communication in different organizations.