Today the commencement of work was initiated on the Centre on Migration and Global Climate Change, located in the Parque Natural del Estrecho, in the vicinity of Tarifa (Cadiz). In the course of the event, a collaboration agreement was signed between Red Eléctrica de España (REE) and the Fundación Migres, which sets out the Company's participation in the activities of the new research centre, considered a world first in its field.

The following people participated in the event: the Mayor of Tarifa Council, Juan Andrés Gil; the Secretary General of the Sub-delegation of the Government in Cadiz, David Fernández; the Deputy Minister of the Government of Andalusia in the Campo de Gibraltar, Ángel Gavino; the Delegate of the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries in Cadiz, Federico Fernández; the Director of Environment and Implementation of Red Eléctrica de España Projects, Eduardo Ramos; and the President of the Fundación Migres and research professor at the National Research Council (CSIC), Miguel Ferrer, who will head the new research centre.

The planned investment for this modern scientific installation exceeds €1.6 million. Red Eléctrica de España is the main sponsor of the Centre, as it will provide funding worth over 900,000 euros, corresponding to the compensatory measures of the second Spain-Morocco electricity interconnection circuit (REMO project). Also, the project will be subsidised by the Junta de Andalusia, through the Ministry of Economy, Innovation, Science and Employment, with an investment of €250,000, and by the Janda Coast Rural Development Group with over €200,000.

Strategic location and activities
Due to its strategic location, availability of space, opportunities for rehabilitation and its important availability of infrastructures, the new centre meets all the requirements to house a scientific facility for the study of Migration and Global Climate Change and become an international reference, besides being the main monitoring station for migration of living species in the Strait of Gibraltar, one of the hotspots of the planet as it is crossed annually by more than 30 million birds of 380 different species.

The facilities will consist of several buildings for research laboratories, conference rooms, training rooms, interpretation centre and the Fundación Migres head office. In addition, the facilities will include an observatory and areas specially designed for the maintenance and scientific study of birds, tagging, ringing and monitoring activities, with a total area of 2,117 square metres.

The activities of this new facility are divided into four areas: scientific activities, technological development, advanced training and the organisation of Conferences.

Collaboration of the Ministry of Defence
The Ministry of Defence, aware of the importance of this project, has made available a landmark piece of property of 303,000 square metres to the Fundación Migres in order to detect the effects of climatic change on living species and to preserve and improve the natural resources of the Strait of Gibraltar, an area particularly representative of the wealth of Spanish and European biodiversity.

This piece of land housed the now obsolete coastal battery D-8 Punta Camorro, and changes its military use for that of excellence in scientific research.

Agreements
The new Centre, which will be devoted to scientific research and advanced training, has already signed scientific collaboration agreements with international institutions of reference, such as Hawk Mountain Sanctuary (Pennsylvania, USA) and the University of Boise (Idaho, USA). Shortly, other similar agreements will be signed with the Max Planck Institute (Germany) and the Smithsonian Centre for Migratory Bird Research (Washington, United States), as well as with institutions such as the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and various universities.