Spain's Environment Ministry Outlines Plan To Implement Law Protecting Biodiversity

摘要

Spain's Environment Ministry Sept. 5 announced its plan to implement the Natural Patrimony and Biodiversity Law, which extends natural spaces and species protections beyond delimited areas to cover all of national territory. The government approved the law (42/2007) in December 2007. The newly created Ministry of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs has now sent the Council of Ministers (Spain's Cabinet) an internal report outlining measures to implement the new law. First Vice President Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said, "Developing the law requires coordination between among all [public] administrations and the activation of protocols of action and previous work, which the Council of Ministers has learned of today" from the ministry's internal report. According to the Council, the new measures will help implement the law's focus on the sustainable usage and maintenance of "essential environmental processes and basic vital systems," on the preservation of biological and genetic diversity and of populations and species, and on the "preservation of the variety, singularity and beauty of natural ecosystems and of geological and scenic diversity." While the government did not set dates or a specific timeline for approving the different actions, most are expected to be approved within the next year.