The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Ana Leiva, participates today in the III Meeting of Local Governments for Biodiversity, which has been held since yesterday at the City Hall of El Real Sitio de San Ildefonso, La Granja, organized by the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP).

The motto of this edition is “2010 and Local Governments in the International Year of Biological Diversity” and managers and experts in the conservation of natural heritage and biodiversity participate in it, to address the challenges that are updated in a year marked as 2010.

By the way, in the round table that has the participation of the Biodiversity Foundation, “The great benefits of ecosystems”, Ana Leiva referred to the challenges posed at the Conference of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union “Post-2010 Goal and Vision in the field of biodiversity: The role of protected areas and ecological networks in Europe”. Among them, he mentioned the importance of incorporating biodiversity goals and targets as part of the European Union’s 2020 Strategy, as well as ensuring payment for ecosystem services and deepening the integration of biodiversity into agricultural, fisheries, energy, transport and development policies, as well as facilitating ecological connectivity and adaptation to climate change.

Of the “Cibeles Priorities”, the name given to the conclusions of the January Conference, the Director of the Biodiversity Foundation also highlighted the recommendation to create the conditions so that those who participate directly in the management of the territory can take concrete conservation initiatives, since it is the local communities that can bring all interested actors closer to political decision-making.