Castellet castle, the headquarters of the abertis foundation, is hosting today and Saturday 15 June the first meeting of the Management Board and the Scientific Council of the Spanish Committee of UNESCO’s MAB programme (Man and Biosphere). The president of abertis and the abertis foundation, Salvador Alemany; the assistant director of the Autonomous Organization of National Parks, Montserrat Fernández; the deputy general manager of Biodiversity at the Generalitat of Catalonia, Ignasi Rodríguez; and the mayor of Castellet and president of the Parc del Foix Consortium, Miguel Delgado, chaired the inaugural session this morning.

The Management Board and the Scientific Council are the two advisory bodies of the Spanish Committee of the MAB programme. The purpose of the meeting is to share views and make a joint analysis of the current situation of biosphere reserves in Spain and the application of the Madrid Action Plan, the framework document that governs the management of UNESCO’s biosphere reserves.

The abertis foundation, with the support of the Autonomous Organization of National Parks of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, is behind Castellet castle’s candidacy as a centre for one of UNESCO’s Mediterranean biosphere reserves. The final decision is expected to be announced in November this year in Paris.