The director of the IRBio-UB, Francesc Xavier Sans, and professors Joan Real and Joandomènec Ros appear before the Parliament for the creation of the Natural Heritage and Biodiversity Agency.

UB experts Francisco Javier Sans, Joan Real and Joandomènec Ros appeared on 29 July before the Environment and Sustainability Committee of the Parliament of Catalonia as part of the legislative process for the proposed law creating the Agency for Natural Heritage and Biodiversity. This entity, which responds to a historical demand of entities, administrations and organisms linked to the conservation of nature in Catalonia, will have as main objectives to lead the protection, planning, management, restoration, improvement and study of the natural environment of Catalonia, both in the continental and marine areas.

Within the framework of the parliamentary process, several experts and representatives of entities related to the conservation of the environment throughout Catalonia have been called by the Commission to comment on the proposal of the aforementioned law, which aims to promote the conservation of natural heritage, biodiversity and geodiversity, with criteria of integrity, sustainability, persistence and efficiency.

Thus, the Environment and Sustainability Commission of the Parliament of Catalonia had the contributions of experts Francisco Javier Sans, director of the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona and professor of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences of the Faculty of Biology; Joan Real, professor at the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences and member of IRBio, and director of the Mediterranean Mountain Biodiversity Monitoring Centre (CMBMM), an entity created in 2016 by the UB and Barcelona Provincial Council, and Joandomènec Ros, professor emeritus of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and president of the Council for the Protection of Nature and also of the Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC).

Professor F. Xavier Sans, as director of the UB Institute for Biodiversity Research (IRBio), with more than 80 academics and nearly 200 young researchers and collaborators in different fields of knowledge, transferred to the Commission the institutional support of the executive committee and the members of IRBio to the initiative, stressing that "the current situation makes a change such as that proposed advisable, but it will be of little use if it is not accompanied by new attitudes and priorities on the part of the Administration and, very importantly, by an adequate financial endowment".

F. Xavier Sans also defended "the need to provide the agency with sufficient independence in relation to political developments in order to be able to carry out policies for the long-term management of Catalonia's natural heritage and biodiversity, and which are not relegated to second place to other interests". During the debate, he reflected on the agri-food model and the loss of biodiversity in the territory, emphasising the urgency of coordinating environmental and agricultural policies and the need to be courageous and to teach wherever necessary.

Professor Joan Real, head of the Conservation Biology Team (UB-IRBio) and director of CMBMM, a pioneering initiative in the Catalan territory and the State in the field of study of biodiversity management and conservation, stressed that "the creation of the Natural Heritage and Biodiversity Agency is not only necessary but very urgent if we want to be a modern country, and if we want to halt the loss of biodiversity and be sustainable in natural resources for future generations in the face of dramatic environmental changes that will have consequences for the economy and the well-being of society".

"In reference to the draft law - continues Professor Joan Real - special emphasis should be placed on in situ conservation of biodiversity and natural resources and on the creation of a Network of Biodiversity Monitoring Stations. A key and fundamental aspect for developing efficient and well-founded policies is the promotion of knowledge and research for the conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity".

The ecologist Joandomènec Ros, professor of Ecology at the University of Barcelona since 1986 and president of the Council for the Protection of Nature - the consultative body of the Generalitat of Catalonia on the conservation of nature and the landscape created in 1985 - stressed in his intervention that "this initiative must be provided very well economically, and delimit the competences between the Agency and the Departments involved in the environment (which are many, not only Territory and sustainability, and Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food), as well as with other agencies with an impact on the environment.

"It is necessary to seriously address all the objectives and functions assigned to it, and take advantage of the excellent fleet of experts that our universities, research centres, academies and various wise entities have, and incorporate some to the Board of Directors. In particular, day-to-day activities and short-term objectives should not prevent the Agency from setting medium and long-term objectives and working at the same time as it does in the most immediate ones".