Category Archives: News

Positive Tourism (8) – Posidonia on the beaches

Views: 191

This is the latest announcement as part of the campaign for Positive Tourism that we have been publishing in the last few weeks on some parts of tourism that need to be managed in a different way.

On this occasion, the chosen theme is the presence of posidonia on beaches. It is of great value but even so is removed from the parts of the coastline with the most tourists.

This peculiar plant, that is colonising the sea, that makes flowers and can live thousands of years, is intrinsically linked with the formation of the beaches on our islands. Scientific studies estimate that most of the sand is made from organisms that reproduce in the posidonia meadows.

The debris that reaches the seashore helps to capture the sand moved with the wind to form dune systems. They are also important for curbing the effects of winter storms.

Posidonia captures large quantities of CO2, holding the carbon in its stems and releasing oxygen. It constitutes one of the richest ecosystems at animal level in our marine environment.

Scientific publications suggest that posidonia could be the longest living species of the biosphere. Samples taken from the waters of Formentera show them to be more than 100,000 years old.

However, it grows very slowly, so that it is vulnerable to human aggressive activity. In our environment, the indiscriminate anchoring of many boats, the discharge of poorly purified emissions, brine returned to the sea from desalination plants, and the disturbance of mud that clouds the waters caused by aggressive use of motorboat engines, are some of the causes of degradation that are being observed.

In the last few years, legal protection has progressed for this species that forms a habitat considered a priority at a European level. It is no longer removed from most of the natural beaches and now there are surveillance boats to stop anchoring over the posidonia meadows.

Yet, how surprising that the tourist industry still calls for its removal from urbanized beaches. With the knowledge we have of the outstanding contribution made by this marine plant, its presence should be valued. Posidonia is not dirt.

What is dirt is the massive presence of plastics that are a consequence of a production system generating an enormous quantity of non-biodegradable rubbish, which is left uncontrolled in the environment. Going to the root of this global problem by stopping buying from providers that do not evolve into using biodegradable materials ought to be a universal commitment and a general request should be heard from tourist spokespersons given that they represent the most powerful economic activity in the archipelago.

You can see other announcements for the tourism campaign by clicking here Positive tourism

Binigarba starts restitution time

Views: 198

The destruction to the land carried out at Binigarba has to be restored. This week a restitution project should have been presented and it has two months in which to be executed. If not, coercive, monthly fines will be imposed.

The municipal resolution was that material poured in from other excavations must be removed, that the areas affected by the earthworks must be restored as well as the damaged sections of dry stonewalls. The restoration project must also comply with the criteria set down by the Nature Network committee.

At the site of Binigarba, between Ferreries and Ciutadella, an attempt was made to extract sand as if from an industrial quarry. As no corresponding authorisations were obtained, the operation was considered as an improvement of agricultural land.

GOB warned that the project, presented by the Binigarba Rural Society of Menorca SRM in collaboration with the builder and marketer of aggregates, Valeariano Allès Canet SL, was planned to take place over an area of 127,527 square meters with a demolition volume of 444.628 cubic meters (hundreds of thousands of cubic meters). It was explained in the Annual Report that Valeriano Allès would make the investment of conditioning the land in exchange for the available sand usable for construction. In other words, it was the project for a quarry previously denied now presented in another format.

In 2007, a license was granted for an agricultural conditioning project. After some months, GOB advised that the activity taking place was outside the authorised area and that materials from other operations were being poured in. The Directorate General of Industry ordered the suspension of the work warning that it expressly denied the extraction of sand in this place. A disciplinary file for urban planning was opened and the activity was stopped.

Sometime after, the developers submitted a reformulated project and restarted the extractions without waiting for a licence. At that time, Binigarba was already part of the Nature Network 2000, for European protected natural areas. New intervention by GOB stopped the work that lacked legal support.

Finally, the developers did not accept the conditions set by the environmental assessment and the new petition for a licence was denied. Now the obligation for restitution of areas worked on illegally has been agreed.

The time allowed for the restitution has begun. The decision of the Ciutadella Town Council was on 29 March 2023 then there was a month available to present the restitution project to remove material dumped from other excavations, the restitution of earthworks carried out as well as the restoration of the drystone walls affected (that GOB estimates as being 950 metres.)

The Binigarba case has lasted 19 years and has meant constant work for monitoring and verifying repeated violations. Finally, it seems that the game of influences has ended and bringing to a head an environmental conscience has an enormous price.

Previous information Binigarba: the argument that was lost

Vegetables and fruit with the best ecological footprint

Views: 178

Fruit and vegetables produced on the Land Stewardship Farms have an ecological footprint of 66% less than the average of farms at state level. This fact is important because we all eat several times a day. Food is one of the principal activities taking up land at a global level. It is also a major emitter of greenhouse gases. Continue reading Vegetables and fruit with the best ecological footprint →

Positive Tourism (4) – Tourist Rental Licence

Views: 570

Today’s announcement concerns the problem of housing for tourist rental.

Menorca has authorized 28,000 tourist rental places that occupy about 5,500 houses. The zoning approved by the island permits only the rental of homes to tourists that have a tourist licence and where the house is in an urbanization. They are not permitted in traditional nuclei nor in rustic areas (though this does not apply to homes with previously obtained licences.)

In any case, now all the Balearic Islands have approved a tourist moratorium that does not allow tourist growth in places for about another three and a half years. Therefore, new tourist rentals cannot be registered regardless of where the house is.

The reality is, when we consider the increase in quantity of people here in the summer, about 35,000 people are found staying in houses undeclared for tourists. This is equivalent to 7,000 more houses, which added to the 5,500 legalized houses, means 12.500 houses used by tourists.

That is why illegal tourist rental is very much linked to the tourist overcrowding that Menorca has been suffering in the last few years, and also with the lack of available housing for residents. When all housing is made available to tourists, or the equivalent holiday prices are demanded for residential rental all the year round, a problem is generated which becomes very significant.

This year, there has been an increase in the tourist inspection body, with the objective of imposing fines against this new phenomenon. It is also being managed at a European level so that digital platforms that offer unlicensed tourist apartments can be pursued on legal grounds.

In the simile of the tourist campaign that GOB has been making in the last few weeks, it has shown up other problems that, in our opinion, should be made known to tourists to help reverse them. Now, when looking for accommodation, tourists should ask if it is available with a tourist licence.

The Menorca We Love exhibition at L’Espai Xec Coll, Ciutadella

Views: 158

Last Tuesday, 11 April, was the inauguration of the photography competition La Menorca que Estimam (The Menorca We Love) at the Espai Xec Coll, Ciutadella. It has gone there having been shown in Maó and Es Castell. The competition was organised by GOB Menorca on celebrating its first 45 years. The exhibition will be open until 3 May.

The competition has been a great success due to its large participation and the high quality of the submitted photographs. There were 319 entries from 106 different authors, which reflected the diversity and beauty that is still conserved for the Menorca we want inspiring us to keep working to defend its environmental values and maintain an equilibrium between human activities and environmental conservation. You will see photographs of our wild animals and flowers, the landscapes, the marine environment…

The jury formed by Antoni Cladera, renowned nature photographer committed to the environment; Fina Salord, philologist and cultural historian; and Magda Seoane, naturalist, poet and member of the board of GOB who selected thirty of the best photographs in their judgement, and now exhibited here. The first prize of the competition went to Ricard Coll for his work El mimetismo del autillo ; the second prize to José Luis Gregorio for his photograph Pau, and the third prize to Carlos Silvestre for Contemplando el cielo.

 The exhibition in Espai Xec Coll is open until 3 May on Mondays to Fridays from 10.00 to 13.30 and 17.00 to 20.00 and on Saturdays from 10.00 to 13.30 h.

We are grateful to the Ciutadella Town Hall for the use of this space. Once again, we give special thanks to all those who have made this event possible, starting with the photographers, the members of the jury and the board members who organised this excellent show.

A new farm incorporated into the Land Stewardship Scheme

Views: 177

Parella Vella is the latest farm that has committed to the sustainable development of its agricultural and livestock activities respecting the natural environment to be incorporated into the network of farms within the Land Stewardship Scheme.

Located to the south of Ciutadella, the farm of about 12 hectares in area is managed by the brothers Dani and Isaac for a varied produce with ecological certification. Producing organic vegetables and fruit is the main activity but not the only one. It also has extensive cattle farming that includes 6 Menorcan cows. This allows for the rotation of the land and its fertilization, and being able to offer the resulting meat for sale. Seeding is done for the cattle to forage.

The countryside is at the mercy of the weather and Parella Vella was one of the estates affected by the heavy rains of August and September in 2022. During this period of storms nearly all the cultivated produce and various infrastructures, such as the greenhouses that allow time for some products to have a longer season, were lost.

After this disaster, it was necessary to reorganise and relaunch all the produce, which is not an easy task but important to maintain the activity. Being part of the Land Stewardship Scheme they gained support and encouragement for the recovery of the farm and establishing lines of work, such as, for example, enlarging areas of flowers favoured by pollinators so increasing the farm productivity.

The commercialisation of its produce is made by direct selling such as the weekly delivery of baskets to private buyers of produce made together with two other farms, or at the Ciutadella Farmers Market with another farm. Their products can be found in some shops or used by school canteens in Ciutadella.

The programme of the Land Stewardship Scheme contributes to the economic viability of agriculture and the conservation of the natural values of the Menorcan landscape. With the addition of Parella Vella to the network, there are now 37 professional farms committed to sustainable farming practices.

For an overview of the Land Stewardship Scheme, watch this short video. This others videos show in more detail the activities carried out as a result of the Scheme.