One of the Autonomous Government of Andalusia’s (Spain) departments is the Regional Ministry of the Environment. This Regional Ministry is a partner in the cooperative project DesertNet II. The Regional Ministry’s involvement in this project is coordinated by the Environmental Assessment and Information Service, which is part of the General Directorate for Environmental Participation and Information.

The Regional Ministry of the Environment has general authority on environmental issues. Its main tasks are managing Andalusia’s natural resources; protecting, managing, and running Protected Natural Areas; studying, protecting and conserving the soil and its vegetation cover, as well as wild flora and fauna; managing water; protecting and enhancing environmental quality; and promoting and encouraging environmental education and awareness-raising activities.

Within the frame of the aforementioned area of responsibility, the Regional  Ministry of the Environment’s Environmental Assessment and Information Service is in charge of: producing environmental information on specific subjects and coordinating the guidelines and techniques used to compile such information; developing R+D projects both independently and in collaboration with other bodies; facilitating public access to technical environmental information; drawing up, applying and disseminating basic indicators on the state and evolution of the environment in Andalusia.

Activities foreseen in the frame of the project DesertNet II

The Regional Ministry of the Environment will undertake regional pilot activities to broaden knowledge on problems of desertification and its triggering factors. In the frame of these activities, the Regional Ministry will carry out the following tasks:

- Compare the results of two different models of soil loss: the model developed in Andalusia (USLE) and the Rain Simulator. Make these comparisons for the whole region.
- Generate information for the entire region about the land uses and vegetation cover referred to in 1956, in order to make comparisons and evaluations over time.
- Apply the models that have been developed to the sensitive areas or the areas at risk of desertification that were identified in the Desertnet 1 study.
- Describe and identify in text and graphics the desert areas and the areas at serious risk of desertification, in order to begin a file on their state and evolution.
- Organise a meeting of partners.
- Post any results obtained on the Regional Ministry of the Environment’s webpage. Likewise, all of these results will be reported in such a way that they can be disseminated by the Services Platform.
- Final publication of the project results at European level.

People responsible for the development of this project:

Cecilia Gañán de Molina
Director General of Environmental Participation and Information

José Manuel Moreira Madueño
Head of the Environmental Assessment and Information Service
+34 955003429
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Manuel Rodríguez Surián
Technician
+34 955003691
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Luis Sarasua
Administration
+34 955003518
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Javier Quijada Muñoz
Technician

Contacts of the Ministry for the Environment
Consejería de Medio Ambiente
Dirección General de Participación e Información Ambiental
Avda. de Manuel Siurot 50
41071-Seville (Spain)
Fax: +34 95003777
www.juntadeandalucia.es