Royal backing for Serra de Tramuntana UNESCO heritage site bid

THE heir to the Spanish throne, Crown Prince Felipe and his wife, Princess Letizia of Asturias, yesterday gave their full backing to the bid being made by the Council of Majorca for UNESCO to declare the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range a natural heritage site.

The Crown Prince and his wife yesterday held a meeting with the President of the Council of Majorca, Francina Armengol and the Island Councillor for Planning, Maria Lluïsa Dubon, at the Almudaina Palace to discuss the project further.

Armengol gave the Prince a memory stick which contains all the details of their UNESCO bid and also showed the Prince and Princess the books which contain over 12'000 signatures of support from a wide range of people including illustrious Majorcan residents and visitors such as the Hollywood actor Michael Douglas.

The royals were also given the promotional video and a set of photographs of the Serra de Tramuntana.
Earlier this summer, King Juan Carlos of Spain, expressed a great deal of interest in the project which he too considers an extremely valid initiative.

Emerging from the meeting, Armengol said that both the Prince and Princess were very well informed about the bid but were keen to hear more about what the bid really initials and what the Council of Majorca is doing to push the bid along.

Dubon described the meeting as “very positive”. “It is a pleasure and an honour that the Prince and Princess are willing to help us where they consider it opportune,” Armengol said.
And she added that, the fact the Prince and Princess called a special meeting just to discuss the UNESCO bid is an indication of just how important the initiative is.

JUNE DEADLINE
In March, UNESCO told the Council of Majorca to continue with its bid, having studied what documentation was available at that time and the selection process ends in June of next year.

According to Armengol, all of Spain's Colleges of Architects are going to give the bid their full backing next week which in turn will give the bid even more weight.

There are currently 911 World Heritage Sites located in 151 different states and countries.
Of these, 704 are cultural, 180 are natural and 27 are mixed properties.