Marilles calls for restrictions on new authorisations and concessions for the use of the Balearic Islands’ coastline

Photo: Sebastià Torrens

Marilles Foundation advocates restricting new authorisations and concessions for private use within the public maritime-terrestrial domain and permitting them only in cases of justified exception. Under this measure, anyone applying to occupy the island’s coastline would have to demonstrate, simultaneously, that the activity they wish to carry out is in the public interest and cannot be carried out at alternative locations, that it complies with all environmental and landscape requirements, and that it is compatible with the management plans for marine protected areas. The proposal would be incorporated into regional legislation via a new article (44 bis) within the new Law on the Planning, Protection and Comprehensive Management of the Coast, which is currently going through the parliamentary process. 

The conservation organisation considers it essential to restrict private use of the coast in order to protect it and, in this regard, the director of Marilles, Pablo Rodríguez Ros, states that this measure “would prevent pressure on the coast and the sea, fragile areas that are already suffering a severe impact from human activity”. Furthermore, he explains, “this new formulation breaks with the logic of a general authorisation for the occupation of the public maritime-terrestrial domain, a situation which we believe needs to be changed”. 

In total, the organisation has submitted 25 objections to the text, including proposals such as banning the permanent removal of Posidonia from beaches (and authorising it only temporarily, during the bathing season, on urban and peri-urban beaches). It also includes the recognition of swimming and snorkelling trails, and reducing the speed limit for watercraft from 10 to five knots within the first mile from the coast. 

Limiting the speed of jet skis 

The submissions put forward by Marilles also include changes to the regulations concerning jet skis, such as a ban on their use in protected marine areas, swimming trails or within the first 300 metres from the coast in the case of beaches and coves. Furthermore, they should be fitted with a device to limit their speed to prevent them from exceeding five knots within the first mile from the coast. 

Protecting the Menorca Biosphere Reserve Act 

The document submitted by the Foundation also includes a request not to repeal two articles, 20 and 21, of the Menorca Biosphere Reserve Act. If these were revoked, it would no longer be compulsory to consult the Menorca Island Council when defining the boundaries of the public maritime-terrestrial domain or when granting licences and concessions for private use along the island’s coastline. Marilles considers that this would remove the only formal channel for the island council’s prior involvement in this type of procedure, a development that runs counter to co-governance.