Related news: Mallorca rural land cannibalisation through development

In 2018, the first official census of rural houses in Mallorca was conducted. Preliminary work for the drafting of the new Mallorca Territorial Plan, this census arrived at a total of 53,170.

In 2022, a report was prepared for the Council of Mallorca by specialists in environmental, economic and sociological matters. This concluded that the territorial plan needed to be amended in order to prohibit the construction of more housing on rustic land , just as Menorca had done in 2002. The report is still in the drawer, and there are fears that it is being completely ignored because of the Balearic Government's administrative simplification decree . Approved by parliament on Tuesday, this will allow the legalisation of hundreds of buildings on rustic land.

Environmentalists, conservationists, farmers, urban planners and architects are among those who are concerned. Architect Jaume Luis Salas compares the situation to that of the 'Balearisation' process of the 1960s and 1970s - "A model of tourist development that devastated the coasts of the Balearic Islands and which left a deep environmental and social mark on the islands." We could now be about to experience an update of this - "A new phenomenon that threatens Mallorca: the cannibalisation of rural land ."

"As coastal developable land has been depleted, so construction has expanded towards the interior, devouring rural landscapes and ecosystems . This voracious construction, favoured by obsolete regulations and globalisation, has unleashed a series of consequences: loss of biodiversity, pollution, fragmentation of habitats and erosion of local identity.

"We need new urban planning regulations that promote a new territorial model and sustainable construction that respects the environment and the landscape, one based on energy efficiency, the selection of respectful materials and the minimisation of environmental impact, offering an alternative to the Balearic model."

That report of 2022 fed into the 'Mallorca 2030 Strategy' document. The Council of Mallorca, then run by PSOE, made a big thing of this strategy and yet nothing came of it. One observation from the report was: "Every day that passes, a natural or agricultural hectare (which provides food, fuel, biodiversity, landscape, captures CO2, infiltrates water, recycles matter and provides immeasurable services) is destroyed and begins to demand materials (often from the other side of the world). It produces waste, consumes water and land, generates new mobility needs and represents a new source of emissions."

For years, the environmentalists GOB have been demanding that there should be no building on Mallorca's rustic land . Spokesperson Margalida Ramis says: "No government has dared to do this. So there are more and more tarmacked ways on rural land and more services typical of urban areas. Tourist uses, with the boom in holiday rentals, are creating huge pressure. The construction of swimming pools is out of control. To this is now added the transformation of land for industrial uses , whether for energy production - large solar parks or a hydrogen plant - or for the construction of a macro farm (e.g. the proposed farm for chickens in Sineu). A silenced transformation of rural land is taking place."

Revival of statute of limitations for illegal building work in the Balearics

Balearic government amnesty for illegal properties "has the appearance of unconstitutionality"

Mallorca's rural land is being "cannibalised"

Revival of statute of limitations for illegal building work in the Balearics

Balearic government amnesty for illegal properties "has the appearance of unconstitutionality"