The chairman of abertis, Salvador Alemany, the director of Televisió de Catalunya, Mònica Terribas, the sub-director general for Innovation, Training and Guidance of the Catalan government’s education department, Joan Gumbert, and the director of the Espai Terra  programme, Tomàs Molina, attended the presentation of the prizes in the Paisatge i Entorn (Landscape and Environment) awards, organised by the Televisió de Catalunya programme Espai Terra, the Catalan government’s education department and the abertis foundation. The aim of these awards is to raise awareness of the regions and landscape among upper-high school students. The event took place today at Castellet castle, in Castellet i la Gornal (Alt Penedès), headquarters of the abertis foundation.

The student Marian Tormo, at the Pere Vives i Vich  high school in Igualada, was the winner of the prize for her piece on La posidònia oceànica a la platja de Torredembarra (Oceanic posidonia off Torredembarra beach). This piece is a study of the state of the posidonia prairies off Torredembarra. After noting the principal threats to the posidonia, the author of the study compared it with the results of one carried out in 2003 and made proposals for protecting the species. Marian Tormo won a trip to Ireland for an English course with all expenses paid.

The jury also decided to award two special commendations for quality of projects to Judit Costa, of the Castell del Quer high school in Santa Maria de Marlès (Berguedà), who conducted a research project in which she assessed the pine processionary, a spreading plague. The other special commendation went to Dídac Llambrich, of the Manuel de Cabanyes high school in Vilanova i la Geltrú, who conducted a study of Mediterranean marine plankton to find out about biodiversity on the Mediterranean coastline.

Espai Terra is a programme made by the TVC news service which combines education and information about the regions with the discovery of nature, meteorology and the environment. The programme has been sponsored by abertis and the abertis foundation since it began in April 2009.