More than 5,000 volunteers participate in the activities organized by the Biodiversity Foundation and Decathlon-Spain in 17 autonomous communities to recover natural spaces

The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment and Decathlon-Spain have held an environmental volunteering day with the aim of improving those natural spaces that are close to the surroundings of the Decathlon centers where sports activities are carried out. The recovery of these natural spaces has been promoted through different conservation actions that have been organised by 43 non-profit environmental volunteering organisations, which the Biodiversity Foundation has been responsible for coordinating and assigning to each of the Decathlon centres. These actions are part of the Environmental Volunteering Program launched by both entities and to which this year a total of 103 Decathlon centers have joined out of the 136 that are located in different parts of the Spanish geography. The conference has brought together more than 5,000 volunteers who have been able to participate in the proposed conservation activities that have been carried out in 17 autonomous communities. In addition, the carbon footprint has been measured in the actions to observe the impact of human activities on the environment. The event was attended by the director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Sonia Castañeda, who participated together with the general director of Decathlon-Spain, Javier López, in the waste selection and collection activities and in the recycling workshops that took place on the Guadalix River, in San Agustín de Guadalix (Madrid) and that were organized by one of the entities participating in the program. Eco-coherence. UNITED TO PROMOTE ENVIRONMENTAL VOLUNTEERING The Biodiversity Foundation collaborates with Decathlon-Spain, one of the 22 companies that have joined the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative, to launch the Environmental Volunteering Programme, which aims to promote the involvement of citizens in the conservation of the coastline, in inter-community watersheds as well as in other natural spaces by expanding the network of volunteers involved in the conservation of the coast. maintenance and improvement of these spaces. The areas that have been classified as priorities within the Environmental Volunteering Programme include, among other protected areas, National Parks, Biosphere Reserves and those within the Natura 2000 Network.