The Emys Foundation project was born in 1987. A group of young people attended a talk where they discovered that the pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) was threatened. These young people, motivated by the urgency of protecting this species, came together under the name of the Association for the Defense of the Natural Heritage of Riudarenes (ADEPAR) to conserve different water points with the presence of pond turtles.
In 2003, with the support of the City Council of Riudarenes and some patrons, the project took a definite boost and created what is now the Emys Foundation, an environmental entity for the conservation of the natural heritage of Catalonia. Since then, the Foundation has been adding projects that today may seem very diverse but that, in essence, continue to converge in its goal: the conservation of nature and, especially, of the wetlands and the Emys orbicularis.