Menorca, more environmentally protected

The Balearic Parliament has approved the Menorca Biosphere Reserve Law, which allows the island council to act against over-tourism and limit everything from vehicle volume to maritime anchoring

Thirty years after the declaration by UNESCO, Menorca now has a law that expands the decision-making and intervention capacity of the Menorca Council and will allow measures to be taken to promote sustainability and protect the territory. With the Biosphere Reserve Law, Menorca has the freedom to limit the maximum number of people, vehicles, and activities in certain spaces or on the entire island, impose limits on the arrival of motor vehicles, access of visitors to areas of environmental or heritage relevance, as well as regulate anchoring and mooring points on the coast and regulate hunting, which is prohibited in some sensitive parts of the island territory. These limitations can be applied from the next legislative period.

The Menorca Biosphere Reserve Law sets sustainability criteria for the natural, cultural, historical, and ethnographic heritage, biodiversity, or landscape of Menorca, with the creation of guidelines developed by the Council.

The Law provides a budget of 5 million euros annually, 75% of which will be provided by the Balearic government in charge of general budgets, and the remaining 25% will be provided by the Menorca Council.