Terraferida abandons activism and accuses the parties in government of not wanting to make transformative environmental policies

As the organisation explained in a statement, Terraferida is taking a break from the environmental activism it has been carrying out for the last 8 years for two reasons: as a small organisation, with no free staff or economic resources, they are limited in dealing with such an avalanche of complaints, information and requests from people and the media, they say.

But the “most important” reason for the environmental organisation is that the left-wing political parties in Mallorca, which have governed the island for 16 of the last 20 years, and the public institutions do not have the will to implement transformative environmental policies. “They are an impermeable wall. Eight years of proposals, allegations and suggestions for legal changes to improve people’s lives have not found any space (…) Despite the fact that the ‘progressive’ parties are supposed to be more sensitive than the rest on environmental issues, we see with concern how they are closed in. They incorporate the discourse and vocabulary of the environmental organisations, but continue to implement policies of growth and overcrowding and refuse to put limits to the massive construction and the process of total touristification of Mallorca“, they criticise.

Hoteliers and property developers dictate policy in Mallorca

Terraferida assures that, reviewing the tourism policy of the last 8 years, the same pattern is always seen: “no tourism policy is adopted that the big hoteliers don’t want. If we talk about urban planning, the red line is not to touch the interests and expectations of the real estate business. Residents matter less and less every day, and companies matter more and more. Not to mention the opposition, always against the slightest progress in environmental and territorial matters. They are hopeless”.

The organisation criticises the fact that no political force is attacking the current Territorial Plan, which allows for 3 million residential and tourist places, nearly a million more than the number of built places, and accuses them of lacking courage: “this barbarity is leading us to an overcrowded, chaotic and precarious Mallorca”.

Terraferida is disillusioned by “inexplicable environmental setbacks” such as “new motorways, airport extensions, a record number of tourist places, massive legalisation of tourist rentals in flats, anti-environmental decrees that serve to further urbanise, à la carte urban planning for hoteliers, decrees to favour Matutes and Nadal, ecotasa (ITS) to promote tourism, photovoltaic plants on every large estate in Mallorca with the condemnation of local agricultural production, more gravel pits, public promotion of overcrowding, public money to finance golf courses, moratoriums on cruise ships that bring even more cruise ships, and so on. “, they state in the communiqué.