Category Archives: News

New alliances for a productive countryside

Views: 296

GOB has signed an agreement with the Aland Foundation and the Association AIVelAL with the aim of giving support to the Land Stewardship Scheme and creating synergies with the action model of Landscape 4 Returns that is being promoted in various parts of the south east of the peninsula.

The three entities are agreed on the reading we make of the problems and the solutions we work on. We understand that both globally and locally we confront a grave problem of loss of soil fertility with its effects on agriculture. This situation feeds into other factors such as the need to adapt to climate change, the imperative to reduce greenhouse gases and to create a better coexistence with biodiversity.

The three entities also share a vision of agriculture as part of the solution. This means regenerative agriculture where the care of the soil is central, spaces for biodiversity are essential and where short chains of commercialization are promoted that revitalise the local economy.

The Land Stewardship Scheme will form part of the network of Landscape 4 Returns, an approach that seeks to restore agricultural management through four ways of action, or “returns” to use its terminology. The Natural Return that improves the soil, biodiversity and water management. The Economic Return that creates employment, professional networks and generates benefits. The Social Return that creates a better quality of life and welfare. The Inspiration Return that creates a reference community for other places with similar problems.

The Aland Foundation has been working since 2021 with the aim of catalysing initiatives for land regeneration through the model of Land 4 Returns. Their vision is of Iberian territory on which economy and ecology are aligned with regenerated countryside landscapes resilient to climate change. They want to promote a more energetic, active and professional world valued by an aware society and has the capacity to inspire others. The Foundation will help to find funding for the programme.

The AlVelAl Association was the first to become part of this network. Since 2015 it has been working in the regions of the Granada Plateau, Los Velez, Alto Almanzora, the north east of Murcia and Guadix all in the southeast of Spain. It is a local initiative that brings together agricultural and cattle farmers, entrepreneurs, researchers and people from different sectors of the population with the aim of restoring the country landscape of this area that is threatened by desertification, depopulation and lack of opportunities. The Association is committed to regenerative agriculture, the restoration of ecosystems and the creation of businesses that add value to local products and generate sustainable employment.

We at GOB celebrate the new collaboration that will improve aspects of advice, viability and knowledge of successful experiences in new farming networks. The Land Stewardship Scheme continues to enlarge its effectiveness and more and more producers and consumers are joining in.

To know more about the Land Stewardship Scheme we invite you to watch different videos that we have on our Youtube Channel

Summer camps for 2023 now available

Views: 239

Summer is already here, the days are getting longer…and the GOB summer camps on the environment are coming. If you want to know more about life in Menorca and the nature that surrounds it…these summer camps are for you.

The Environmental Education area of GOB is continuing to prepare activities with the experience of previous years. For this year, we have three distinct events, depending on the age of the participants that will take place between the last week of June and the first half of July.

The team of monitors is prepared and keen to revive experiences but are excited, also, to carry out new activities and itineraries that we are designing for this summer.

Going out to live in nature is exciting and is something we never forget. The GOB Education project would like to share this experience with many children and young people of Menorca, conscious of the knowledge and awareness they will gain.

The activities that will be carried out are as follows:

  • Children’s camp: from 26 to 30 June. For children born between 2014 and 2016
  • Youth camp: from 3 to 8 July. For those born between 2010 and 2013
  • Itinerant camp: from 11 to 17 July. Young people born between 2008 and 2010

Registration will open for members on 27 March and for non-members from 11 April. Places are limited and once they are all taken, the registration period will end. For more information you can send an email to administracio@gobmenorca.com and you will be told everything you need to do.

This activity is organised by the Environmental Education area of GOB, and is helped by the Representative of the Reserve of the Biosphere of the Island Governing Council, the General Directorate of Waste and Environmental Education of the Balearic Government and the Town Councils of Maó and Es Mercadal.

Another protected bird wounded by shooting taken into the Recuperation Centre

Views: 218

A Scopoli’s shearwater has been taken into the Wildlife Centre for Recuperation, victim of a shotgun. It is the second case in a month when a protected species has been taken for the same reason. The last time it was a hawk, a peregrine falcon. This is not the permissible time for hunting and so it cannot have been shot in error. We have made official complaints to SEPRONA and to the environmental and hunting authorities, hoping that they can find the guilty person and solve this illegal practice.

The Scopoli’s shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) is a marine bird that lives in the open sea. It goes to land only when it wants to breed. At this time of the year, groups begin to be seen near the coast. The injured shearwater was found a mile out to sea, with a recent wound in its wing. Once it was looked at, a break was seen caused by a shotgun cartridge. It is hard to imagine how this could have occurred.

The bird is now being cared for in the Centre to see if it can recover adequately. Shearwaters become really stressed when they are deprived of their liberty. We are worried how to give support for a long time at the Centre, enough required for mending the fracture. It is complicated in Centres of Recuperation because of the time needed to cure the fractures and they do not survive well in captivity.

The shearwater is a species of high level protection, catalogued as “vulnerable” in the Spanish Catalogue of Threatened Species by Royal Decree 139/2011. The penal code provides for prison and heavy fines for anyone who shoots at any of these species of high level protection.

You can watch commemorative video of the 45 years that GOB has been in Menorca.

Studies support the need to restore the protection of the Isla del Aire Marine Reserve

Views: 243

Scientific studies reinforce the need to reinstate the lost protection of the sea near the Illa de l’Aire. There are three times as many fish inside the protected area than outside it. GOB is asking the Balearic Government Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Mae de la Concha, to reconsider urgently this loss of protection before a large part of the progress in conservation has disappeared.

Recently, the latest “report on the state of conservation of fish populations vulnerable to fishing in the marine reserve of the Illa de l’Aire” was published. This was carried out by the Jaume Ferrer Research Station of La Mola (The Balearic Oceanographic Centre, IEO-CSIC) and the Socio Environmental Observatory of Menorca (OBSAM-IME) and financed by Menorca Preservation.

If we compare the results of this report with a study produced in 2018, before the area was declared a marine reserve, we see how, in the area of maximum protection, the abundance and biomass of fish vulnerable to fishing has increased by 50% while unprotected areas have remained the same since 2018. The documentation also shows how the Special Diving Area (the most protected area of the reserve) has three times the amount of fish biomass as outside it.

With these data, the authors of the report conclude that after four years of tracking, the results confirm the potential of the Marine Reserve of the Illa de l’Aire hosting an increased diversity, abundance and biomass as vulnerable to fishing.

However, it should be noted that after the fieldwork of this study was carried out, the Decree 38/2022 was published on 6 September 2022. This decree modified the decree for the creation of the Marine Reserve of the Illa de l’Aire reducing 22% of the area of maximum protection. This new zoning left unprotected an area that has shown, in only three years, to have a great recovery potential. As the authors point out, the lack of protection in this area could affect the recovery and conservation potential of the Reserve towards rocky underground fish populations.

Thus it is again clear, as shown previously, the removal of protection in the Special Diving Area was not made with the support of any scientific criteria nor was it driven by a request from the Island Governing Council of Menorca, as has been shown by their latest reactions.

GOB again asks the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Food of the Balearic Government to reinstate and recover the original zoning that the marine reserve of the Illa de l’Aire was enjoying before the modification made some months ago and for which no motives can be justified.

Look at the commemorative video of the 45 years that GOB has been in Menorca.

 

Thursday 9 March, Law of the Reserve of the Biosphere, debate in Ferreries

Views: 188

The opportunities, challenges, significant and insignificant advances in different topics covered by the recent Law of the Reserve of the Biosphere of Menorca, will be explored by GOB this Thursday at 20.00 hours in Cas Vesins, Ferreries.

Matter to be transferred or delegated will be analysed, as well as the distinguishing managements foreseen in different issues such as the landscape, tourist model, decarbonisation, water, the coastline, the marine environment, air and other subjects.

After the introduction, the debate will be open to attendees. The event is open to the public.

You may watch the commemorative video of 45 years of GOB here

Increased tourist inspection in Menorca

Views: 289

GOB welcomes the increase on the staff of tourist inspectors in Menorca. With the recent addition of two, there will be seven to carry out this work.

The emergence of digital platforms has led to the mass rental of houses to tourists, many of which are unauthorised. This problem is not exclusive to Menorca, but it has been estimated that there are between 6,000 to 7,000 houses that make undeclared rentals.

Apart from the short-term income that can be made by some property owners, the situation is causing two negative consequences at the collective level. The most evident is the overcrowding in summer. Last August there were some 35,000 people unknown where they slept. This number is estimated by discounting the registered population, the recognised tourist places and the margin of people that stay in houses of families or friends.

Having such a large volume of tourists occupying unplanned places is making the island suffer from evident overcrowding, when, in fact, a policy to contain the growth of new urbanizations has been made.

However, tourist rental is recognised as one of the main reasons for the lack of available housing for the resident population or for those who come to work seasonally.

In effect, there are about 28,000 places that are legalized for this mode, which is equivalent, according to official figures, to some 5,600 houses. If this is added to the number of 6,000 or 7,000, undeclared rental houses cited above, we come to spectacular figures.

In order to curb the negative consequences GOB has asked on several occasions to increase substantially the amount of work for controlling the situation. For this reason, reinforcing the tourist inspection service has been received very positively.

Overcrowding Menorca and leaving it without places to live is not a good way to go for the Island. As has been said on many occasions, the collective interest should prevail over the individual.

Look at the commemorative video of the 45 years that GOB has been in Menorca.

Land stewardship agreement with a solar park

Views: 246

Taking advantage of the conditions of low human presence in a solar park, GOB has signed a land stewardship agreement with the Parc del Camí de Sant Joan in order to promote maximum biodiversity.

The installation of a solar energy park will begin to be constructed in the next few months and will occupy about 10 hectares of very rocky land. It has obtained a favourable report from the Medi Ambient department and a municipal licence.

The idea is to carry out various activities at the points where there are no solar panels in order to help different fauna: make drinking troughs with safe access; warm refuges for insects; stone refuges for mammals; areas for sowing cereals; enhancement of wild flowers of different seasons, etc.

GOB has already produced some inventories of flora and fauna of the area in order to be able to monitor the changes as they occur.

The implementation of renewable energies in rural areas has quite exhaustive criteria relating to zoning, integration with the countryside and construction systems, aimed at avoiding the irreversible transformation of the land. With this agreement, the aim is to go further and try out activities that help fauna in a positive way.

We are confident that good results will follow and that the experience serves to increase the environmental benefits of renewable installations that are being implemented on the island.

Look here to see the commemorative video of 45 years of GOB in Menorca.

The dark swimming pools

Views: 360

The case of the illegal swimming pools in the Torre Vella agro tourism is not yet closed. There are still a few episodes to be resolved found in a dossier that is subject to a glaring lack of transparency. The town council has returned to denying GOB access for consulting the relevant documentation.

At this site near Alaior, they have started some interesting agricultural production. There are olives, grapes, aromatic herbs and beehives. They want to do the product processing on site or jointly with Santa Ponça farm also owned by them.

The argument surrounding Torre Vella is not agricultural but urban and environmental. It is worth remembering that this agro tourism hotel started its processing when all the agricultural buildings would be dedicated to tourist activities and they could increase their volumes.

The principal buildings are the farmhouse and a large cowshed. Extensions were planned for both cases. Another eight auxiliary buildings (stables, warehouses, barns, etc) were also included destined for tourism and enlargement. In total, 5500 cubic metres for tourism. A swimming pool was included.

Then, not having left anything for agricultural use, they put up new buildings occupying some 1,000 square metres adjoining the Cami de Cavalls.

Despite the fact The Island Council (Consell Insular) declared the project was declared of general interest and it passed an environmental impact assessment, the developers found time to talk to the media to say that they were finding many obstacles for their project. The activities they had completed indicated they had influenced the development in a very serious way.

The problem is that they decided to breach the conditions of the authorization for the entire operation. So, in addition to GOB’s notice to the Urban Planning Discipline Department in the autumn of 2019, regarding the appearance of seven swimming pools that had not been declared in the project, now there was the discovery of another list of irregularities. The Department inspectors saw platforms, sheds and thousands of square metres of cemented and other pavements.

When these breaches became known, the Government Department of Environment sent their Agents to carry out another inspection. In addition to the things already mentioned, they found landfills (of more than 2,000 square metres) and the opening of a new road expressly denied, as well as the paving of other roads.

Altogether, this is a culmination of breaches of great magnitude. The solution is complicated if they insist in not returning to the project that was approved. In this case, it is not enough just to comply with urban rules, but they must also comply with the environmental conditions that were applied yet have been completely ignored.

In other words, if the swimming pool had been for rainwater and wastewater containers, that were to save consumption from the well, they could not now be swimming pools. They cannot be legalized as such. If the opening of a road is denied, it cannot now be left open. If areas cannot be paved – in order to decrease rustic land – they cannot now remain paved. And so on.

This case is one to which a curious lack of transparency is added. When GOB learned some years ago that the developers had presented documents for legalize irregularities, the Alaior Town Council denied GOB access to the files. Despite the fact that it was a case in which GOB had appeared personally on repeated occasions and that they have obvious environmental relations, the Town Hall denied access alleging that the case did not have a final result.

Last November, the Town Hall was asked again, but gave the same negative reply.

Meanwhile the illegal swimming pools are working and promoted as though they have been legal for the last three to four years.

The obscurity of these cases has been denounced by GOB in front of the Council for Transparency. If there is no positive response, it has been agreed that administrative litigations will be applied.

For more information on this case, you can visit Santa Ponça and the indignant promoters,  Seven illegal swimming pools in an agro tourism.

The Land Stewardship Scheme reaches Lebanon

Views: 150

The Land Stewardship Scheme of Menorca generates interest in distant places. Recently there has been an exchange with Lebanon in an area that also has a declared Reserve of the Biosphere, which applies similar programmes with those of Menorca in order to invigorate agricultural management and environmental conservation.

Al-Shouf Cedar Society (ACS) is a non-profit organization that manages the land in the Reserve of the Biosphere of Shouf famous for its spectacular millennial cedars. The economic crisis and the conflicts surrounding the country led to land being abandoned, which now represents new opportunities.

Al-Shouf has a very interesting management of biomass from pruned branches and farm manure, which has involved different land agencies in the area, so waste becomes a resource. It also works to preserve its territorial mosaic providing functional and environmental values, as is the case with Menorca.

On a Lebanese initiative, a delegation came to Menorca last October to learn about our Land Stewardship Scheme at first hand to gain a better understanding of some of the strategies and activities that we carry out. Amongst other things, they were particularly interested in the monitoring of bio indicators on farms and the work carried out by volunteers.

Recently, a Menorcan delegation, with technicians from the Reserve of the Biosphere Agency and members of GOB visited Lebanon and it was possible to go to different conservation projects and see the recovery and beneficial exploitation of some of the areas. Explanations were given to the Lebanese on the alliance between farmers, owners and conservationists that is being promoted in Menorca.

The visit to Lebanon included an interview with the Spanish Ambassador who was very satisfied with the collaboration already established and offered his help in any way he could. The Deputy Chief of Mission attended the signing of an agreement for encouraging the sharing of successful experiences between the two places.

The Al-Shouf organisation and GOB are part of the Alliance for Nature and Mediterranean Culture that aims to work internationally in the search for solutions for providing healthy food, for the management of land sustainability and the recovery of biodiversity.

We hope that this new collaboration can bear fruit in joint projects and that, little by little, we can see the impact we make on each side of the Mediterranean.

Watch the video here commemorating the 45 years of GOB in Menorca.