profile

 

 
   

 

Arturo Larena comes from Madrid, Spain, and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism (University Complutense/CEU San Pablo, Madrid), where he also studied Public Relations and Advertising. 

Since February 1998 to mach 2002, he was the President of the Spanish Association of Journalists of Environmental Information (APIA), organization that he contributed to create in 1995. Presently, APIA has about 130 members, all of them journalists specialized in environmental information collaborating for the main media in Spain (newspapers, radios, televisions and communication cabinets), to promote this specialty of journalism as well as the environmental information. 

Specialized in Scientific Journalism at the Spanish Superior Council of Scientific Investigations (CSIC) –the most important public institution of investigation in Spain– he has also been awarded a grant by the Government of the United States within their Program of International Visitors, where he went deeply into the knowledge of the environmental and scientific information and the Hispanic media. 

Author of more than 4.000 pieces of information on science and environment, field in which he has worked during the last 11 years, as President of APIA he promoted the creation of the first prize-grant for young journalists specialized in environmental information, thanks to the collaboration between APIA, EFE Foundation and Tetra Pak.

Together with Cristina Benito, he has also created and promoted the first APIA website that provides information on the activities of the association to the Internet users. 

He has participated in numerous Congresses and Seminars, such as the I Central American - Spanish Meeting on Environmental Journalism (Guatemala, 7-10 December 2000), the National Congress of Friends of the Earth (Fuenlabrada/Madrid, 1999), as well as speaker in several conferences at the University of Salamanca, University Menendez Pelayo of Santander or University Complutense of Madrid.

As President of APIA, he had the honour of receiving from the hands of His Royal Highness Don Felipe de Borbon (Prince of Spain), the prize given to this association by the National Congress of Environment in November 1998. 

He has been speaker at the I and III National Congresses of Environmental Journalism and member of the organizing committee of the III and IV National Congresses of Environmental Journalism and participated in the books that collect the speeches of these meetings. 

He has been director of the EFE News Agency in Extremadura between June 1998 and October 1999, where he also promoted the environmental information and the creation of the first specialization scholarship in environmental journalism and nuclear information, supported by the EFE Foundation. 

From October 1999 to September 2006 he was the Head of Local Information in the central office of EFE in Madrid. He managed the Regional News Service of the region of Madrid coordinating a team of editors and correspondents that generated more than a hundred pieces of information a day, promoting the information on ecology and environment, what led the team to be awarded with the second Prize of Environmental Journalism of the City Council of Madrid.

Presently, he is the director of the EFE News Agency in Galicia.

At the EFE Agency, where he entered in 1990, he has worked in the departments of Culture and Science, Environment, Sanity and Education and he has been special correspondent to places such as the French Guyana, Baikonur (Kazajstan), Tunisia, Finland, Norway, France or Switzerland.

He has also worked in other Spanish media (radio, newspapers and magazines) apart from collaborating in different publications.

Environmental awards

His professional work has been acknowledged with several awards, e.g.:

  • National Prize of Environment (Journalism) 2005, Spanish Ministry of Environment.

  • CSIC (Spanish Superior Council of Scientific Investigations) Prize of Scientific Journalism 1992. Accesit.

  • Special mention of the jury of the National Prize of Environment 1994, Spanish Ministry of Environment.

  • Prize Friends of the Earth 1995.

  • Prize of Journalism of the National Congress of Environment 1996.

  • Second Prize of Environment of the City Council of Madrid 2000 (given to the EFE Regional News Service).

Member of juries of environmental prizes 

He has been a member of the jury of the:

  • I Award of Water and Environment “Alhambra”, organized by the “UNESCO Chair of Sustainable Development and Environment” of the University of Granada 1998.

  • “Joven y Brillante" (Young & Brilliant) Prize of Ecology 1999 and 2000.

  • I National Award “Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente 2001” granted by the Spanish Ministry of Environment.

  • Prize “Fundación Doñana XXI” on Journalism and Sustainable Development 2001.