Minister Sílvia Paneque visits CREAF

The Minister of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition, Sílvia Paneque, visited CREAF today with the aim of learning first-hand about the reality of CREAF, its facilities, the main research projects being developed there and the results of the projects that CREAF leads jointly with the Department itself.

The institutional welcome was attended by the rector of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Javier Lafuente. The visit was also attended by Emili Mató, director of Barcelona's Territorial Services, and Marc Vilahur, general director of Environmental Policies.

On behalf of CREAF, a delegation led by Joan Pino, director of CREAF, accompanied by Joaquim Escobar, manager of CREAF; Javier Retana, scientific director of the Severo Ochoa program; Alícia Pérez Porro, head of institutional relations and political interaction at CREAF, and Anna Ramon, head of communication at CREAF, participated.

During the visit, the Minister was able to visit three of the CREAF laboratories. First, she visited the soil laboratory, where several ongoing experiments related to the restoration of degraded soils, the use of biochar as a fertilizer and as a basis for projects to restore degraded areas, as well as other initiatives related to soil biodiversity in Catalonia were presented. The SISEBIO project, a soil biodiversity monitoring system coordinated by CREAF within the framework of the program contract with the Generalitat de Catalunya, was also explained in this space.

The Minister then visited the pollinator laboratory, where she was able to see first-hand the CREAF pollinator collections, unique in the entire State. In this context, the Intersectoral Plan for the Conservation of Wild Pollinators was discussed, a project also included in the CREAF program contract with the Generalitat, which proposes a set of actions over a five-year period to recover the wild pollinators lost in Catalan territory.

The visit continued at the dendrochronology laboratory, where the minister got to know part of the collection of more than 8,000 cores extracted from trees in Catalonia and around the world, which make up what is known as CREAF's "forest library", a key collection for reconstructing the climate of the past and better understanding the present climate.

Along the way, the Minister was able to talk to several researchers at the center: with Xavier Domène in the soil laboratory, with Anselm Rodrigo in the pollinator laboratory, and with Xavier Pons, with whom she learned about the environmental cartography projects that CREAF has been developing for more than 30 years with the support of the Department of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition. Among these projects, MiraMon stands out, a geographic information system created in Catalonia and in Catalan, widely used by the Generalitat and universities, as well as the Land Cover Map of Catalonia and its evolution, developed in collaboration with the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia.

After the visit to the laboratories, a closed-door meeting took place in which the CREAF delegation shared with the Minister other joint strategic initiatives. Among these, CREAF's science for policy and science diplomacy strategy was addressed, with actions at a Catalan, national and global level, including participation in key international spaces such as the IPBES and IPCC intergovernmental panels, as well as presence at the climate and biodiversity COPs.

Within this framework, the work of CREAF has also been highlighted to integrate these scientific advances and the great global challenges into Catalan policies, through research projects aimed at guaranteeing effective transfer of knowledge towards public decision-making.

During the meeting, CREAF outlined the main challenges for the future of the center, highlighting the level of excellence achieved especially in the last five years, thanks to the Severo Ochoa seal and the CERCA system assessments. At the same time, the need for more spaces and structural resources to advance the center's growth and scientific, institutional and international projection was put on the table.

For her part, Minister Silvia Paneque has defended that the current legislature is a pro-science legislature and government, and has expressed the will to put into operation direct scientific advice mechanisms, both in the Presidency of the Generalitat and in the different ministries, with the aim of guaranteeing that public policies are based on the best scientific evidence available.

We highly value the results of the meeting, it has been very productive and has allowed us to agree on the creation of a working group to define the future of the center. This space will serve to address the challenges of CREAF's growth and projection, consolidate basic financing and move towards a more structured center model, including the planning of a new building that responds to the increase in staff, talent and projects in recent years" Joan Pino, director of CREAF.

A growth that has consolidated CREAF as a national and international reference in the fields of ecology, climate change and biodiversity conservation.