The meeting takes place in Puerto Morelos, Mexico, and closes today with the presence of the Director of the Biodiversity Foundation.

The Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs (MARM) has presented, in Puerto Morelos (Mexico), within the framework of the First Ibero-American Conference of Biosphere Reserves, the sustainable rural development programmes launched in these territories of the Spanish Network, as an example of the application of the Action Plan adopted by the MaB Programme (Man and the Biosphere) for all the biosphere reserves of the World Network.

At the meeting, which closes today with the presence of the director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Ana Leiva, the MARM presented, a few days ago, the framework for financial support for the management and sustainable development of the Network’s reserves, which is driving significant progress in all the reserves in the different areas of work provided for by the Action Plan.

Spain is a leading country in the assumption of this Action Plan, which was approved in Madrid in 2008, and which contains the strategic lines and actions to ensure that biosphere reserves fulfil their functions of biodiversity conservation and promotion of sustainable development models.

For the past three years, the MARM has been using the 40 existing biosphere reserves in Spain as a conceptual reference in the implementation of the Law for the Sustainable Development of the Rural Environment, through
specific programmes designed for these natural spaces and the signing of agreements with the public or private institutions responsible for their management. So far, the programme of actions for sustainable development in biosphere reserves has led to the signing of 36 agreements on the
collaboration, with an investment by the MARM of 25,169,842 euros, out of a total public expenditure of 38,522,201 euros.

The Spanish case has been recognized as an example of great interest in terms of establishing alliances between policies of different natures that share the same objective of sustainability of the
Territories.

For this reason, the synergies and similarities between the development strategy of the Network of Reserves of the IberoMab space, and of the MaB Programme itself, and that contained in the Spanish Sustainable Rural Development Programme, with which they share numerous principles, approaches, objectives and methods, such as public participation, the territorial approach, the search for sustainability in development and the improvement of the standard of living of the population.