MADRID, 20 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -
Inditex and WWF have signed a three-year collaboration agreement through which the textile company will allocate 10 million euros to carry out nine nature restoration and transformation projects in threatened ecosystems in North Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America . The projects will be focused mainly on the restoration and conservation of forests and watersheds and the protection of endangered species and their ecosystems.
The signing of the agreement was held this Tuesday in Geneva (Switzerland) between the CEO of Inditex, Óscar García Maceiras, and the general director of WWF International, Marco Lambertini. At the event, García Maceiras highlighted that the textile company's sustainability strategy seeks to increase the positive impact of its work on people, communities and natural resources.
"We are delighted to collaborate with organizations like WWF, who share our determination to help protect and restore ecosystems around the world. We believe that WWF is, with its proven track record and global reach, the best long-term partner to raise ambition of our commitment to the environment through
a transformation project for our entire industry", he stated.
For his part, Lambertini has expressed that the NGO is "very happy" to have Inditex as allies in its mission to reverse the loss of nature and achieve a positive impact on nature by 2030.
"Nature sustains our economies, our societies and our well-being. However, we are losing it at an alarming rate," Lambertini recalled, adding that like many industries, the textile and clothing sector depends "to a great extent" on nature. nature and biodiversity and has a "significant impact" on them.
"We need urgent measures to stop and reverse the loss of nature, including collective and strategic investments to restore and protect biodiversity," he defended.
According to the agreement, Inditex will allocate part of the funds obtained by charging for paper bags and envelopes to the projects, a measure that was launched in 2021 to promote the use of reusable alternatives.
Specifically, Inditex will make a minimum annual contribution of 3 million euros to WWF, with 4.2 million euros set for 2022, so that its total contribution until 2025 will exceed 10 million euros.
Forest restoration and conservation projects will be dedicated to protecting biodiversity and promoting sustainable management in Castilla-La Mancha, which represents more than 13% of all forests in Spain. In addition, it will support forest restoration work in Datça-Bozburun (Turkey) and the oak groves of Cratere degli in the Astroni Nature Reserve in Naples (Italy), both affected by recent forest fires; in addition to promoting forest conservation efforts in Dadia (Greece), a vital refuge for birds of prey in Europe.
Initiatives will also be undertaken for the recovery of water basins and freshwater ecosystems concentrated in North Africa, specifically in the Sebu River basin (Morocco) and in the coastal wetlands of Ghar el Melah and the Guerbes plains. -Sanhadja in Tunisia and Algeria.
Another of the recovery projects will be developed in the Mekong River Delta (Vietnam), affected by intensive rice cultivation and suffering a significant loss of biodiversity.
On the other hand, in Latin America, endangered ecosystems and fauna will be conserved with initiatives for the recovery and conservation of the Gran Chaco tropical forest and the Pantanal wetland hand in hand with local communities in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. In Mexico, WWF teams work alongside local NGOs to conserve the habitats of two endangered species: the monarch butterfly and the jaguar.
In the Taihang-Yan Mountains in northern China and the Amur-Heilong region in the northeast of the country, a key habitat for medium- and large-sized predators, the organization's efforts are focused on species conservation. endangered like the Amur leopard or the Amur tiger.
The rest of the amounts collected with the collection of bags and envelopes will be used in projects of different organizations, such as Water.org in Southeast Asia; Action Social Advancement (ASA), together with Laudes Foundation, IDH The Sustainable Trade Initiative and WWF India to promote regenerative agriculture in India.
