Press Room

• The Foundation took part in a session running alongside the event where the unstinting efforts to conduct research, disseminate information and unlock synergies through the Network of Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves were highlighted.
• It is the first and only example of a public-private partnership on a Category 2 centre between UNESCO, the government and a private company like Abertis.
• During his visit, Salvador Alemany, Chairman of Abertis and of the Abertis Foundation, accompanied by Maria Teresa Lizaranzu Perinat, Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of the Kingdom of Spain to UNESCO, met the Secretary-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova.

Barcelona, 14 June 2017.

The Abertis Foundation today presented the UNESCO International Centre for Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves at the 29th session of the International Co-ordinating Council of the MAB Programme in Paris under the auspices of UNESCO.

The Abertis Foundation took part in a parallel event entitled “A model for public-private partnership” and attended by the Chairperson of the Executive Board of UNESCO, Michael Worbs; the Director of UNESCO’s Ecological and Earth Sciences Division, Han Qunli; and the Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of the Kingdom of Spain to UNESCO, Teresa Lizaranzu. Also present at the event were Salvador Alemany, Chairman of Abertis and the Abertis Foundation, and Martí Boada, Scientific Coordinator of the UNESCO Centre and a researcher at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB).

The session afforded an opportunity to present the Castellet International Centre as a pioneering experiment in collaboration between UNESCO and a private company. The intensive programme of activities undertaken at Castellet Castle was also presented and the Centre’s contribution to, and the unlocking of synergies with, the MaB programme analysed.

Marti Boada, the Scientic Coordinator of the UNESCO Centre and researcher from ICTA-UAB, stated: “Beyond its scientific importance, the Centre stands apart as the first example of a partnership between an international organisation such as UNESCO with a private company such as Abertis. The outcome is an innovative and imaginative initiative that we are putting at your service in the hope that it will serve as inspiration for the establishment of other similar centres in partnership with UNESCO.” Category 2 centres are centres and institutes under the auspices of UNESCO which represent a special category in the United Nations system: they are created and financed by the member states and their main purpose is to achieve the principal strategic goals of UNESCO’s MaB (Man and Biosphere) programme.

The MaB programme is a scientific, interdisciplinary and intergovernmental initiative aimed at establishing scientific foundations for improving long-term human-environment relations. It uses its Network of Biosphere Reserves as vehicles for knowledge sharing, research and monitoring, education and training, and participatory decision-making.