At the strategic level, Fundación Biodiversidad is coordinating the elaboration of the Biodiversity and Science Strategy (EByC), a joint proposal of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge and the Ministry of Science and Innovation. The EByC (2023-2027) is being elaborated within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), its main mission is to organize, within the framework and as an application of the Spanish Strategy and the Spanish Science, Technology and Innovation Plan (EECTI and PECTI), a system that favors the generation and transfer of knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem services, of quality, inclusive and effective, that meets the needs of planning and management to achieve its protection, conservation, sustainable use, restoration and its economic and social value.
Secondly, Fundación Biodiversidad participates actively, together with the National Parks Autonomous Organization and the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, in the implementation of the first Work Program of the Environmental Education Action Plan for Sustainability (PAEAS), which defines the strategic lines of environmental education in Spain for the next five years, offering a consensual work framework that reflects the strategic areas of action, as well as the objectives, main measures and specific actions to be developed by the different sectors and agents involved in Sustainable Environmental Education.
Within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, financed by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, the Fundación Biodiversidad manages two calls for grants to support research programs and projects in biodiversity management. The 2021 call for grants had an endowment of €2.5 million and the 2022 call for grants has a total endowment of €2 million.
Both focus on research projects that promote the application of scientific knowledge for decision-making in biodiversity planning and management.
The Natura 2000 Network, the world’s largest network of protected areas, aims to ensure the long-term survival of Europe’s species and habitats, helping to halt the loss of biodiversity and to make conservation compatible with the development of sustainable activities.
To achieve these objectives, it is essential to have the support of the parties directly involved in management, in addition to the general public. Despite its importance, knowledge of the marine Natura 2000 Network is still insufficient, which hinders the involvement of stakeholders in its conservation.
The marine Natura 2000 training program aims to address these issues through the involvement and capacity building of key stakeholders.
The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) is reinforcing the marine Natura 2000 Network training program aimed at public administration personnel involved in the management of the marine Natura 2000 Network and other target audiences. This program, initiated with the LIFE INTEMARES project, is promoted thanks to the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), financed by the European Union’s NextGeneration funds.
The European Biodiversity Partnership, Biodiversa+, which provides continuity to the ERANETS of the Horizon 2020 programme, is one of the key actions of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 under the European Union (EU) research and innovation (R&I) framework programme for the period 2021 -2027, Horizon Europe. Jointly developed between the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG R&I) and Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV), it aims to provide a global, multidisciplinary platform connecting local, national and European research and innovation programmes with a common goal: to put European biodiversity back on the path to recovery by 2030.
Biodiversa+ was set up in 2021 as Action 81 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and counts with the Fundación Biodiversidad of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge as one of the Spanish funding partners together with the State Research Agency (AEI) and the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI).
Biodiversa+ plans to publish, within its Work Package 1 (WP1), up to six calls for grants aimed at funding three-year projects, implemented by at least three entities from three European countries.
The Biodiversity Foundation, with co-funding from the European Commission, will support the Spanish organisations selected by the European Commission to participate in the project.
To date, two calls for grants have been published. The 2021 call, BiodivProtect, aims to support the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems on land and at sea. You can find all the information about this call and the 36 projects selected by the partnership on the Biodiversa+ website. The BiodivMon call, published in 2022, aims to improve transnational monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem change for science and society. All the information on this call can be found at Biodiversa+.
