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Menorca’s organized civil society has achieved another victory in the conservation of the island’s landscape values. UNESCO has taken a position on the controversy surrounding the double-level roundabout that the Island Council intends to build at Rafal Rubí and has requested that the works be stopped and that a less impactful alternative be sought — precisely what civic entities have been asking for.

Several cultural, social, and environmental associations have jointly demanded that the design of the Rafal Rubí junction respect the guidelines established by UNESCO when Talayotic Menorca was declared a World Heritage Site.

Today, the statement from this international body, which oversees World Heritage territories such as the prehistoric monuments and the lands surrounding them, has become public. The content of the message is clear: it calls for a road intervention that avoids the impact foreseen in the current project.

UNESCO identifies serious shortcomings in the environmental impact study commissioned to the Tresserras consultancy. It warns that the current proposal would have a highly negative effect on the landscape context of the “navetes,” breaking their relationship with their environment and compromising the integrity and authenticity of the landscape of the area declared to have Outstanding Universal Value.

The document also recalls that along the same main road, other junctions have been resolved with much less invasive solutions. It further notes that the Balearic Islands’ Roads Law allows for the revision of initiated works, and that the Island Territorial Plan includes several articles on the landscape protection of the components of Talayotic Menorca — provisions that are currently being ignored.

In sum, UNESCO’s reasoning coincides with that of the civic entities, and dismantles the Island Council’s accusations that the protests were politically motivated. Opposition to the Rafal Rubí project is based on logical, technical grounds that international institutions have now endorsed.

For these reasons, GOB Menorca wishes to celebrate this statement and thank the rigour and commitment of the other organizations that, along with ours, addressed the international bodies: the College of Architects, the College of Archaeologists, Friends of the Museum of Menorca, Ateneu de Maó, the Federation of Neighborhood Associations, the Forum of Third Sector Entities, the Scientific Council of the Institut Menorquí d’Estudis, and the Education Workers’ Union (STEI Intersindical).