On 5 December, in Barcelona, the first draft of the Catalan Action Plan was presented to the Local Stakeholders Group.
Mr Ferran Miralles, the General Director of Environmental Policies, provided a warm welcome to the 34 Catalan stakeholders, and highlighted that the Action Plan needs to achieve two objectives of the Catalan administration: to reinforce the link between biodiversity information and decision-making processes.
Xavi Besora, from Espai3, explained the process of developing the Action Plan in Catalonia. For example, to make sure the Action Plan clearly tackles both objectives, the local stakeholders split into two working groups and the results of these working groups' discussions have been the basis of the Action Plan.
Gerard Bota, from CTFC and Pau Sainz de la Maza of the Government of Catalonia, introduced each action and its timeline. In the plan, each action is categorised based on whether it focuses on ERDF improvement (FONS) or the improvement of biodiversity information (INFO). All actions all have a detailed explanation of what inspired the action, which problem the action would like to tackle, how it will be done and who is responsible for its implementation.
The attendees then provided feedback, suggested changes and improvements. The feedback was positive overall.
Following this event, the stakeholders comments will be intergrated and the Action Plan will be presented at the interregional workshop in Ljubljana in Slovenia. Here, partners and stakeholders will provide further comment. The Action Plan will be finalised by the end of March 2019.
