23 July 2020.- The Vice-President and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, chaired today, Thursday 23 July, the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Biodiversity Foundation, in which, among other issues, the new composition of the Board of Trustees was approved as well as the appointment of Elena Pita as the new director of this institution. under the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO).
An agronomist and Master in farm economics and natural resources, Pita has a long international career and extensive experience in biodiversity conservation and the fight against climate change. He has worked in more than 30 countries, and for entities such as the United Nations (UN), in its Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean; the European Commission (EuropAid); or the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation.
With this appointment, a new stage opens for the Foundation, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, which will focus on the promotion of nature-based solutions as a fundamental element of a new model of prosperity; the establishment of strategic alliances and bridges with Science; and the integration of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services into other sectors of society, among other aspects.
BOOSTING THE GREEN AND BLUE ECONOMY
In addition to the appointment of the new management, the Board of Trustees has approved the call for a new line of aid aimed at supporting the hiring of unemployed people within the field of the green and blue economy, which will have an endowment of 5 million euros.
The aid is aimed at entities linked, directly or indirectly, to the green and/or blue economy or entities that, not being linked, generate employment that contributes to a sustainable line of business or to the management of an environmental improvement in the entity. They will support full-time contracts for a minimum period of 6 months aimed at unemployed people.
The maximum amount of the subsidy will be 4,300 euros for each contract made, prioritising permanent contracts and the fact that the person hired belongs to a priority group (women, young people up to 35 years of age, people over 45 years of age, immigrants, people with disabilities or residents of protected areas and/or rural areas).
This call for grants, co-financed by the European Social Fund, is part of the Empleaverde Programme of the Biodiversity Foundation, which aims to boost the sustainability of economic activities in all sectors, promoting the just transition towards a low-carbon and circular economy, integrating biodiversity into management and business processes and making more efficient use of natural resources. constituting an engine of sustainable economic growth and social progress.
ADDITIONS TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
The new configuration of the Board of Trustees, made up of 12 members, includes the general director of Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification; Jorge Marquínez; the director of the Spanish Office for Climate Change, Valvanera Ularqui; the general director of Quality and Environmental Assessment, Ismael Aznar; the Secretary General for the Demographic Challenge, Elena Cebrián; the undersecretary of MITECO, Miguel González Suela; and the director of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, Javier Tomás Ruiz.
The Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, who will serve as first vice-president, the Director General of the Coast and the Sea, Ana María Oñoro; the Secretary General of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Alicia Villauriz Iglesias; the prosecutor of the Chamber against crimes related to territorial planning and the protection of historical heritage, the environment and forest fires, Antonio Vercher, and the head of the Nature Protection Service of the Civil Guard, Antonio Tocón.
The new Directorate-General for Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification, to which the Biodiversity Foundation has recently been attached, assumes the second vice-presidency. This Directorate has new competencies such as marine biodiversity, the illegal trade of endangered species or forests. All this with the aim of strengthening and giving greater coherence to the Ministry’s actions in the field of biodiversity conservation.
Likewise, the Board of Trustees has approved the management report that includes all the actions carried out by the Foundation in the first half of 2020. During the state of alarm caused by COVID-19, the bank’s activity has remained fully operational, although, following the recommendations of the health authorities and to avoid internal and external contact as much as possible, teleworking has been promoted among its workers.
Communication has also been strengthened to respond to the needs of Spanish society in this period. In this sense, new lines of activity have been launched, such as #Bioartistas or #Biodirectos, a series of online meetings, broadcast live and simultaneously on the different social media channels, whose objective is to raise awareness of the important role that biodiversity plays in relation to human health, as well as to address various topics related to the opportunities offered by a green reconstruction after the global crisis generated by COVID-19. So far, the four matches broadcast to date have been followed by nearly 33,000 people.
In addition, the 2019 accounts, issued by the General Intervention of the State Administration, have also been approved, which have been favourable and without qualifications.
