This September has seen significant changes at Marilles. After nine years at the helm of Marilles Foundation, I have decided to step aside – aside, not backwards! – to make way for fresh blood, energy, and ideas. Months ago, we began a transition to strengthen Marilles’s leadership with a new director. This long process recently came to fruition.
I am delighted to announce that, as of this September, Pablo Rodríguez Ros is the new director of Marilles Foundation. Pablo has been working with us to secure more and better marine protected areas in both the Balearic Sea and the Mediterranean. He holds a PhD in oceanography and has extensive experience working to improve the conservation status of our seas through research, the public sector, and civil society.
For my part, I am taking on a new, more institutional role, focused on ensuring the Foundation’s financial stability. I’ll be evaluating the work carried out and that which lies ahead, while collaborating closely with the new director and providing support from the sidelines.
These have been exceptional and exciting years. In 2015, I began working on the Adessium Foundation’s idea to establish an organisation dedicated to making the Balearic Sea a benchmark for marine conservation. This led to the creation of Marilles in 2017, and a lot has happened since then.
Marilles has established itself as one of the key players in marine conservation in the Balearic Islands. Initiatives such as the Balearic Sea Report, MARE, the Balearic Blue Pact, Calant Xarxes, Arxipèlag Blau, and our scholarship and training programme for the third sector, among many others, have helped lay the foundations for long-term change.
Internally, we have increased our budget fivefold and enjoy the support of a community of foundations and regular donors who remain financially committed to our Foundation. We value this commitment and hope to continue strengthening through results that benefit the Balearic Sea.
None of this would have been possible without the dedication of our team of professionals or the work of all those organisations and individuals striving to improve the conservation status of our sea and coastline.
We face challenges of enormous magnitude: rapid ocean warming, attacks on scientific evidence, misinformation, and the chronic underfunding of marine and coastal conservation. But we also have a great advantage. We know that investing in marine conservation pays off. Fishers are reaping the rewards of years of effort; the private sector is shaking off its lethargy and beginning to realise that the prosperity of the Balearic Islands depends on a well-conserved sea; and the public is calling for greater political and financial commitment.
All of this gives us cause for optimism. We have come a long way, but we need to raise our level of ambition. The Balearic Islands will boast the largest and best-protected marine areas in the Mediterranean, a model and exemplary fishing fleet, and clean waters teeming with life, with habitats and species in an excellent state of conservation.
Welcome to Marilles 2.0, a new chapter begins!
Aniol Esteban – Founder and Director of Development
