Public administrations
Public administrations
Public administrations play a fundamental role in developing the potential of private initiative in nature conservation.
Land stewardship needs the complicity and support of public administrations in order to develop the potential of private initiative in conservation. In turn, the administrations, on their own, are capable of successfully facing the challenge of the obligation to protect, conserve and restore nature.
The legislation entrusts public administrations with promoting land stewardship through agreements between entities and landowners. Also, it foresees the possibility that the General State Administration, when it is the owner of the land, can cede its management to land stewardship entities through agreements. Specifically, Law 42/2007 on Natural Heritage and Biodiversity contemplates land stewardship in articles 3, 37, 76 and 77.
Likewise, the State Strategic Plan for Natural Heritage and Biodiversity to 2030 includes land stewardship as a priority line of action:
“”Beyond the scope of action of public administrations, land stewardship will be promoted as a tool for biodiversity conservation and citizen participation, paying attention to the social dimension of these initiatives and their potential contribution to the fight against depopulation, and an inventory of Land Stewardship Initiatives will be created”.”
Stewardship is also identified as a tool to support ecosystem recovery:
“Land and coastal land stewardship initiatives will be promoted, focused on ecological restoration and as a complement to the actions carried out by public administrations”
And as a financing instrument:
“Mechanisms will be developed to facilitate and channel private sector funding for actions of sectoral integration of natural heritage and biodiversity and their conservation and sustainable use. Similarly, land stewardship entities, foundations and non-governmental organisations will be promoted. Likewise, the establishment of synergies between the third sector and the private sector will be promoted in order to favour financing and strategic collaboration in initiatives and projects in favour of the conservation of natural heritage and biodiversity”
Stewardship has also been prominently incorporated into other national and regional conservation instruments, including the State Strategy for Green Infrastructure and Connectivity and Ecological Restoration and the Spanish Forestry Programme (2022-32).
Technical documentation
The Fundación Biodiversidad has published a series of studies detailing the different ways in which public administrations can promote and collaborate with land stewardship, providing real examples:
- Legal instruments for the formalisation of land stewardship partnerships with public administrations (2024)
This publication addresses, among other issues, questions relating to the ownership and management of public assets, which are of vital relevance for the correct approach to stewardship initiatives with the administration managing these assets. It also seeks to contribute to a better understanding of administrative agreements and subsidies.
This informative brochure, prepared in collaboration with the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), sets out the different roles that local entities such as municipalities, councils, town councils and island councils can play in land stewardship as owners and land stewardship entities, promoting the establishment of agreements and actions in the municipality, as well as generating legislation and regulations that favour stewardship and environmental governance.
This publication integrates land stewardship into the planning and management of nature conservation policies.
