The Minister of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, Rosa Aguilar, has chaired her first Board of Trustees of the Biodiversity Foundation, a public foundation dependent on the aforementioned department. At this meeting, the action plan for 2011 was discussed and approved.

The year 2011 will undoubtedly be a year of great challenges for all those who work around the environment. It is the beginning of the decade that the United Nations has declared as the Decade of Biodiversity, to continue raising awareness among the nations that make it up of the need to take measures to prevent the deterioration of ecosystems and stop the loss of the natural and economic heritage of their territories.

Hence, the renewed governing and representative body of the Biodiversity Foundation today honours its commitment to the conservation and sustainable use of natural heritage and biodiversity, through the implementation and reinforcement of important initiatives for the protection of our environment, which are also committed to sustainable development.

Among them, it is worth highlighting the implementation of the Biodiversia Platform, an innovative web platform that promotes citizen participation in the knowledge of Spanish biodiversity through the National Inventories provided for in Law 42/2007 on Natural Heritage and Biodiversity. Another public participation network in which the FB will continue to work in 2011 is the Land Stewardship Platform, an initiative that arises as a result of the commitment reached with the land stewardship movement and that promotes the development of this figure throughout the national territory.

Likewise, among other unavoidable tasks in 2011, it is worth highlighting the LIFE+ INDEMARES Project. Next year will be the third year of execution of this project that aims to contribute to the protection and sustainable use of biodiversity in Spanish seas by identifying areas of value for the Natura 2000 Network.

In its line dedicated to the sustainable development of the rural environment, the Biodiversity Foundation will promote actions that contribute to the implementation of Law 45/2007 for the Sustainable Development of the Rural Environment, and will participate in pilot projects linked to the sustainable use of natural resources, as well as the generation of employment and the diversification of rural economies.

As for the fight against climate change, the FB will continue, among many other research and dissemination projects, to contribute its grain of sand with the project “Trees, custody and volunteering”, framed in the Trees Program of the Government of Spain. In 2011, new forestry work will be carried out in collaboration with associations and NGOs that have stewardship agreements and through the work of volunteers.

A firm commitment will also be maintained to the generation of employment and the reconversion of economic activities towards sustainability, through the ‘Empleaverde Programme’, co-financed by the European Social Fund. In this sense, another challenge for 2011 consists of the implementation of the own project ‘Red Emprendeverde’, to support the creation and consolidation of green companies.

Throughout 2011, the close collaboration that the FB maintains with the associative network will also be maintained to improve the knowledge, capacity and involvement of society in the enhancement of natural heritage, which is, without a doubt, a vehicle for generating wealth in rural areas and in society as a whole. as well as an essential tool for mitigation and adaptation to climate change.