- The call for grants, coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation of MITECO, contemplates a total budget of 11.5 million euros
- The projects must be accompanied by the scientific component, which will allow guiding and directing the actions
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) opens today the application period for aid through a specific call from the Biodiversity Foundation, published last Friday in the Official State Gazette (BOE), for the recovery of the ecological functionality of the Mar Menor, to which it will allocate 11.5 million euros, through the environmental improvement of intensive livestock farms in the lagoon catchment basin and support for extensive livestock in the Campo de Cartagena.
This call is included in line 6 of the Framework of Priority Actions to Recover the Mar Menor (MAPMM), endowed with a global budget of 675.05 million euros, where support for the transition of productive sectors is proposed.
In this way, the central government seeks to promote the recovery of the Mar Menor catchment basin, while accompanying and supporting the transition and environmental improvement of specific productive sectors, as had already begun in 2023 with another specific call for the agricultural sector.
The three eligible lines are support for extensive or semi-extensive livestock farming and the promotion of economic diversification in the territory; the promotion of changes in management and intensive livestock practices to reduce the environmental impact on the production and potential pollution of slurry; and improvements in the management and treatment of waste and slurry to reduce their polluting potential.
The projects must be accompanied by the scientific component, which will allow guiding and directing the actions, as well as generating new knowledge to promote the sustainability of this economic activity.
Each project may receive a grant of between 300,000 euros and 2 million euros, with co-financing of up to 90% of the budget, and will last 36 months. The deadline for submitting applications begins today, November 3, and will end on January 13, 2026.
Innovative and transformative initiatives are expected, which will imply great results to increase sustainability in the livestock sector, as is already being achieved in the agricultural sector with the call for aid published in 2023. The Biodiversity Foundation granted 16.2 million euros to 10 projects demonstrating best practices in the agricultural field, which contribute to the ecological transition in agriculture and the reduction of impacts at source in the Mar Menor catchment basin, although the City Council of Cartagena has renounced one of them, valued at 1.8 million euros. Almost two years after the start of the projects in this call, very relevant practices are being implemented and key results are being achieved to advance in the agroecological transition of the territory.
