Dunes system of s' 'Arenalet in the Llevant park.

Dunes system of s' 'Arenalet in the Llevant park. | A. Bassa

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma09/11/2016 00:00
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On the fifteen anniversary of the declaration of the Llevant Nature Park, environmentalists GOB have called for it be increased. It wants procedures to be started immediately in order to do so and thereby rectify the situation caused by policies of the Matas and Bauzá Partido Popular governments.

The declaration was made on 9 November 2001 by the then president of the Balearics, Francesc Antich, and it was for a park consisting of 21,507 hectares of land and 5,275 hectares of sea across five municipalities - Arta, Capdepera, Sant Llorenç, Santa Margalida and Son Servera.

Its formation marked a change in strategy for protected natural areas which had previously focused on comparatively small areas with limited economic activity, such as Albufera, Cabrera and Dragonera.

However, during the Matas 2003-2007 regime the protected area was reduced dramatically to only 1,671 hectares of land. GOB maintains that this was done without any technical justification. When Bauzá was president, the capacity to manage the park was cut. One of the maintenance crew was dispensed with and in 2014 the director became part-time.

GOB is therefore urging environment minister Vicenç Vidal to place an expansion of the park on his agenda for next year.