Fresh calls for a Serra de Tramuntana Natural Park

THE Red/Green Alliance yesterday called on the Balearic Government to declare the Serra de Tramuntana a Natural Park and not make it part of the Management Plan for Natural Resources (PORN), as they have proposed. They also asked that the protected area be extended to the 90'000 hectares occupied by this zone, which will allow an “integral protection” of this Majorcan natural space. These are the suggestions that the alliance has presented against the proposal by the Balearic Government that the Serra de Tramuntana should form part of PORN. The period for the public to examine the proposal has now closed. This was revealed in a press conference yesterday by the spokesperson for the Red/Green Alliance, Miguel Angel Llauger, and the Council of Mallorca councillor, Marilena Tugores. Llauger explained that the 62'000 hectares which are protected in the PORN project are “inadequate” and said he considered that this should be increased to the 90'000 hectares which this natural area covers, including the north west extremes (as far as the localities of Pollensa and Alcudia) and the south east which is delimited by Palma and Andratx. This “reduction in the protected area” also affects the sea area of the Serra de Tramuntana, which is a lot more extensive that the 1'000 hectares which will be included into the future protection of the “natural place”. It is because of this that they are insisting on the necessity that the protection should be that of a Natural Park, as this type of protection “is not limited to small reserve areas which are considered for exclusive use”. The Red/Green Alliance spokesperson said that the declaration of Serra de Tramuntana as a Natural Park would be a “historic victory” for the ecologist movement. For his part, Tugores said that the Balearic Government's proposal does not represent “any decisive action to improve the environmental protection of the Serra de Tramuntana.