The Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs held a meeting this morning at the headquarters of San Juan de la Cruz with representatives of the Biodiversity Foundation, during which Ana Leiva was appointed as its new director. Leiva’s appointment responds to the need to adapt the functions and objectives of the foundation to the new political vision represented by the recent creation of the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs. A more inclusive perspective of agricultural, fisheries and environmental policies.

Ana Leiva was Secretary of State for Territorial Cooperation of the Ministry of Public Administrations in the previous legislature. Born in Logroño in 1957, she is married and has two children. She is an agricultural technical engineer and a civil servant of the Government of La Rioja on leave of absence. Among other positions, she has been a deputy in the Parliament of La Rioja, Minister of Agriculture of the Government of La Rioja, national deputy and spokesperson for the Socialist Group in different parliamentary committees. Between 1996 and 2000 he was a member of the Federal Executive of the PSOE and of the Regional Executive Committee of the PSR-PSOE. She has also been mayor of the Riojan municipality of Cirueña and delegate of SEIASA del Nordeste for La Rioja and Navarra.

The Secretary of State for Rural Affairs and Water, Josep Puxeu, is the president of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, an entity that depends on the MARM, in which experts and researchers from the different areas of work that are part of this ministerial department also participate.

Among the functions of the Biodiversity Foundation are the promotion of agreements and calls for aid linked to rural development and the conservation of the various ecosystems of Spain, the support and cooperation in studies to improve knowledge of the reality of the rural and natural environment from the perspective of sustainability, the sponsorship of initiatives related to the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of resources, the management of resources of the European Social Fund as well as the promotion and promotion of awareness-raising and social awareness initiatives for the sustainable protection of biodiversity.