The Council of Ministers, at the proposal of the Ministries for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge and Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, has authorized the signing of the agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to continue hosting the International Centre of Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves in Spain.

The 13th Conference of the Parties (COP13) to the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) begins tomorrow, February 15, in the city of Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. Representatives of states where wildlife migrations occur or those within their ranges are meeting until February 22 to analyze the status of these species and establish internationally coordinated conservation measures.

The Nature Protection Service (SEPRONA) of the Civil Guard, in coordination with EUROPOL and INTERPOL, has successfully completed Operation Quercus, a high-intensity operation aimed at combating illegal timber trafficking. This is the first operation of its kind carried out in Spain, made possible thanks to coordination with national and regional authorities and utilizing a fundamental tool: a novel methodology for identifying trafficked timber species.

The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has signed two collaboration agreements to implement the Spanish Plan to Stop Wildlife Accidents (SAFE), a citizen science initiative to assess wildlife mortality due to road accidents on transport routes. Both agreements, one with the main Spanish scientific societies working with specific wildlife groups and the other with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), will reveal for the first time the mortality figures for vertebrate species that occur each year on Spanish roads.

The 21st Meeting of the Spanish Committee of UNESCO's Person and the Biosphere (MaB) Programme was held today.

The draft Strategy for the Conservation and Management of the Wolf in Spain proposes harmonizing the species' protection status at the national level, including all Spanish populations on the List of Wild Species under Special Protection, and establishing priority lines of action to ensure consistent wolf management and conservation throughout Spain, ensuring its populations and long-term distribution and guaranteeing coexistence with humans.

The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has opened the public comment period for the draft Royal Decree on the conservation of forest genetic resources and wild flora. The aim is to establish basic standards for the conservation and sustainable use of forest genetic resources of national interest and, specifically, the planning, coordination, and collaboration instruments for their in situ and ex situ conservation. It also establishes measures for the ex situ conservation of protected wild flora.

This morning, the working group on the critical situation of the Cantabrian capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus cantabricus) met. The meeting was attended by the Autonomous Communities of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, and Castile and León, along with the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) representing the General State Administration.

January 13, 2021 – Spain, through the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, has signed, along with eight other European countries, the 2025 Ambition Declaration of the Amsterdam Declaration Partnership to strengthen cooperation against deforestation. Belgium and Spain have now joined the seven European countries already in this partnership with the signing of the 2025 Ambition Declaration, thus renewing their commitment to eliminate deforestation related to agricultural products by 2025.

February 2, 2021 - On the occasion of World Wetlands Day, Vice President and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, presented the Government's commitment to promoting the recovery of wetlands. Spain aims to recover 20,000 hectares of wetlands by 2030, complementing the 18,000 hectares already restored in recent decades.