GEN-GOB has submitted allegations to the Balearic Islands' Agrarian Law Project because it considers that the text distorts the objective of promoting agricultural activity and favors tourist and urban uses of rustic land. The entity maintains that the regulation could consolidate the tertiarization of the countryside and hinder the competitiveness of farmers, in addition to generating inequalities between islands, especially in the case of Ibiza, which is subjected to high tourist pressure.

‘If you don’t have a house, nor the money to build one (...) put a caravan / in the middle of a plot / or expand a small shed / without permission to do so’, sing Ànimos Parrec. The song Veniu a es Pla, has already become an anthem for a land that never stops accumulating transformations on the margins of legality. With these lyrics, Julià Picornell ironizes about the proliferation of irregular dwellings and settlements on rustic land in the Pla de Mallorca.

Illegal settlements on rustic land, linked to the incessant demand for labor and the housing emergency, are putting the public administrations of the Balearic Islands to the test. Although caravans, small houses, and precarious constructions have become common on the outskirts of towns and along rural paths and tracks, no census currently allows us to know how many settlements there are in Mallorca or how many people live in them.

Having 14,000 square meters of common rustic land will no longer be enough, on its own, to be able to build a house of more than 100 square meters. If the agrarian law bill approved by the Governing Council ends up passing parliamentary processing, building a new large-scale dwelling in the countryside (the majority of those being built are) will be linked to an agrarian obligation that must be maintained for 15 years.

The Association of Ecological Agricultural Production of Mallorca (Apaema) considers that the draft agrarian law approved by the Governing Council includes part of its demands, but it demands that the text incorporate more guarantees to protect agricultural land and provide more decisive support for ecological production.

The High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands has once again set limits on one of the paths that landowners have historically used to try to obtain urban development rights on rustic land: arguing that the physical reality has already, in fact, turned them into city. However, the arrival of services, being surrounded by a road, or the fact that urbanization has gradually approached the property is not enough, in itself, to convert it into consolidated urban land, according to a recent ruling by the TSJIB.

Pollença is currently processing 360 files to legalize houses and constructive elements on rural land. Sant Josep de sa Talaia (Ibiza) has 235 at hand, although it has discarded 26 for not meeting the requirements. There is no global figure, because the councils, despite having the obligation to monitor rural land, have neglected the process and do not supervise it. "The municipalities do it directly," sources from the island governments of Mallorca, Menorca, and Ibiza have responded to ARA Balears. But, if two important municipalities add up to more than 500 files, it is clear that the rural amnesty approved by the Government of Marga Prohens has had a very significant reception. The measure has served to portray the agony of rural land, and "the complete failure as a society," in the words of the Urban Planning manager of Pollença, Tomeu Antich, in terms of enforcing the law and discipline in rural territory, fundamental for biodiversity, agriculture, landscape generation, and the preservation of culture.

The environmental organization Terraferida considers that the debate on water in the Balearic Islands cannot be limited to the construction of new desalination plants, as the Government proposes. Its spokesperson, Jaume Adrover, maintains that the problem is older: the territorial model has allowed for decades for dispersed urban growth and housing on rural land to increase pressure on aquifers, which are a public good. "I don't know of any place on the planet where such an abusive consumption of water is made as here due to chalets on rural land," states Adrover, who links this situation with the expansion of single-family housing outside urban centers.

The GOB has asked the Balearic town councils this Thursday to report on how many constructions on rural land have been legalized through the positive administrative silence mechanism, after the Government eliminated this route with the new Law on urgent measures for strategic projects.

The Petra City Council has sealed this week the construction of a dwelling made with two trailer cabins and located on rustic land. The infra-dwelling is located at the entrance of the municipality from the Felanitx road and consists of two internally connected heavy-duty truck trailers, a facade with a door and two windows, and a roof made of resin.

Every 31 hours, a new villa is finished on rustic land in Mallorca. This means five per week in areas that should be designated for agricultural or natural uses, according to Terraferida's complaint. If we add the available data from Ibiza, we find that between the two islands, a new rustic house is finished every day. This is an accelerated process of land transformation that is no longer occasional but structural. Environmentalists are calling for it to be stopped immediately in Mallorca and the Pitiusas, as Menorca did more than 20 years ago, and for rustic land, considered "the crown jewel of the land," to be declared non-buildable, says Terraferida spokesperson Jaume Adrover.

Mallorca has 55,256 homes built on rural land, 15,817 of which could be contrary to current urban planning regulations, according to data from the project Houses That Don't Exist, presented this Monday to the Official College of Architects of the Balearic Islands. The research, led by urban planner Miquel Rosselló Xamena, puts figures to a phenomenon often invisible in public debate: the proliferation of homes on rural land.

The Friends of the Coanegra Valley Association has filed objections against the proposed second lithium-ion battery energy storage plant on a rural plot in Santa Maria del Camí. The group rejects the initiative and questions whether it can be processed as a project of strategic industrial interest. The protest comes after the Regional Ministry of Business, Self-Employment, and Energy opened the public consultation period for the application for this designation and the authorization of the project, called Bess Santa Maria. The association believes the facility lacks the public interest that would justify this administrative treatment. According to the association, it is a "private and speculative activity with the sole purpose of profit," lacking a production process, stable job creation, and integration within the local energy plan. For this reason, they argue that it does not meet the requirements to be considered of strategic interest. The group also maintains that the project cannot be located on rural land. They point out that legislation only exceptionally permits this type of installation for industrial facilities linked to renewable energy production, a category in which, according to their interpretation, the planned plant does not fit. Furthermore, they believe the initiative implies an inappropriate use of common rural land, which—they emphasize—should be designated for agricultural, livestock, or forestry activities. In this regard, they assert that the installation is incompatible with the urban planning classification of the area and that, in any case, it would require a Declaration of General Interest and the mandatory territorial report from the Consell de Mallorca (Island Council of Mallorca). The organization also denounces that the project encroaches on the municipal powers of the Santa Maria del Camí City Council regarding urban planning. They indicate that the initiative lacks any favorable report and has not been validated by the municipal governing board or the mayor. According to the association, the proposal contradicts the municipality's political and urban planning guidelines and violates the principle of local autonomy, in addition to failing to respect the criteria for citizen participation and transparency in the selection of locations for energy infrastructure. In this regard, they denounce the fact that the plant's location has not been consulted or negotiated with neighborhood associations or local institutional representatives. Environmental and safety risks

Among the arguments presented in their objections, the group also warns of the potential environmental and safety risks associated with this type of facility. They explain that the potential leaks of toxic gases or liquids in the event of a thermal failure, which could affect vegetation, soil, and aquifers, have not been adequately assessed. The association believes the project violates the precautionary principle, as it would be located in an area with no prior industrial use, which, in their opinion, would entail a significant transformation of the environment. They also emphasize that the proposed plot has high ecological value and forms part of the agricultural and landscape mosaic located between the municipalities of Consell and Santa Maria del Camí. Finally, the group warns that lithium-ion batteries carry potential risks, such as explosions, difficult-to-extinguish fires resulting from thermal runaways, the emission of toxic gases harmful to human and animal health, and possible chemical contamination of waterways.

The environmental organization Terraferida denounced on Tuesday the rural urbanization process taking place in Mallorca, where 15 square kilometers have been urbanized between 2015 and 2025, an area equivalent to the entire Cabrera archipelago. Terraferida launched a manifesto on Tuesday calling for the protection of areas outside of villas and photovoltaic power plants, as the first step in a campaign that will take them to municipalities to inform residents with data and images about the rural urbanization process affecting the island.

Building permits issued in the Balearic Islands increased by 27.9% in 2025 compared to 2024, a growth driven, in part, by the extraordinary legalizations of buildings on rural land approved by the Balearic Government, as the Official College of Architects of the Balearic Islands pointed out this Tuesday. In this regard, during the presentation of the Housing Observatory held this Tuesday at a press conference, experts indicated that without the effect of the extraordinary legalizations, the increase would have been 5.7%, meaning there would have been 22.2% fewer projects. They explained that this increase is linked to the extraordinary regularization processes for buildings on rural land provided for in Decree Law 3/2024 and Law 7/2024, concerning housing and administrative simplification, respectively.

The primary sector in the Balearic Islands is struggling with problems that have worsened over the years. Drought, health alerts, the permissiveness of the authorities in allowing inappropriate uses of rural land, and a lack of generational leadership are some of them. The few remaining workers in the primary sector are looking for ways to survive, while the debate about the importance of agriculture, fishing, and livestock farming for preserving the territory and the environmental sustainability of the Balearic Islands is increasingly prominent.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Balearic countryside was still reeling from the consequences of the rural exodus it suffered mainly in the second half of the 20th century. The expansion of mass tourism recruited many workers from the primary sector. In addition to the loss of labor, during the first quarter of the century farmers had to face the crisis of the traditional agricultural model, price disparities with the mainland, the loss of rural land, and adverse weather events, among other problems. However, in a sense, Balearic society has become more aware of the importance of the primary sector in the Islands, which has had to reinvent itself to survive. Nevertheless, Foravila has accumulated regulations, bureaucracy, and problems that are increasingly stifling it. "We are worse off than at the beginning of the century," summarizes Joana Mascaró, manager of Unió de Petits Agricultors i Ganaders (UPA-AIA). Foravila is becoming a wasteland

The loss of agricultural workers led to the abandonment of the land and also of traditional monocultures. In fact, 99% of the dryland almond trees that years ago produced Mallorca's almonds no longer exist. In the early 2000s, the rural countryside began to be perceived socially as a landscape rather than as productive land. "The countryside became a vacant lot with the arrival of city dwellers, speculators, and people who wanted to live in luxury," explains Miquel Gual, president of the San Bartolomé de Sóller Agricultural Cooperative. Furthermore, this problem, which began around the year 2000, has worsened with the increased tolerance of the authorities in authorizing certain uses that are inappropriate for rural areas. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the Balearic Islands have lost 28,500 hectares of agricultural land and 1,700 farms in ten years (from 2013 to 2023). Regarding agricultural products, between 2015 and 2020, production decreased for cereals (from 49,341 to 48,937 tons), legumes (from 3,090 to 2,057 tons), tubers (from 58,284 to 8,284 tons), citrus fruits (from 10,739 to 6,535 tons), stone fruits (from 2,031 to 1,200 tons), nuts (from 7,364 to 3,956 tons), and vegetables (from 5 to 5,000 tons). The livestock sector is not immune to this decline. Mascaró points out that "in Mallorca, only 10% of the dairy farms that existed around the year 2000 remain." Regarding milk production, he explains that in the same period, production has fallen from 40 million liters per year to seven million. All of this has led to the disappearance of feed mills and other activities related to the sector, while others face an uncertain future, as is the case with Agama. Boom in organic farming

For the first 25 years of this century, the trend toward organic farming was the complete opposite of that of traditional agriculture. In 2000, the area dedicated to organic farming in the Balearic Islands was 3,455 hectares, according to data published by the Balearic Council for Organic Agricultural Production (CBPAE). That figure has increased significantly. In 2024, organic farming reached 50,542 registered hectares, and compared to 2023, it added 43 new operators, reaching a total of 1,301. These figures demonstrate that "organic farming in the Balearic Islands has ceased to be an ideology," celebrates Joan Gaià, coordinator of Unió de Pagesos (Farmers' Union). At the beginning of the implementation of this model, farmers questioned its profitability, since the products used are more expensive. But over the years, farmers have found that organic techniques mitigate the effects of climate change and also make better use of the Balearic Islands' natural resources, which have dwindled over the past 25 years. That's why Gaià points out that organic farming "is the future of the Balearic countryside." Along the same lines, he insists that "for things to go well" in the next 25 years, "conventional agriculture should almost disappear, although some of its practices should be preserved."

The artificialization of the Balearic Islands' territory has increased by 65% in less than 30 years (1990-2018). This is one of the most striking conclusions drawn from the analysis of data from the European system that tracks land use changes, the Corine Land Cover project, carried out by geographer Marta Pieras. According to the specialist, the figures paint a picture of "runaway land consumption that reflects a very worrying model." Between 1990 and 2018, the area occupied by urban zones, infrastructure, and areas linked to tourism has grown steadily, while crops and the landscape are disappearing at an alarming rate, according to the same analysis.

The Mallorca Territorial Defense Agency has demolished several buildings, installations, and paving erected on a rural property and intended as an animal shelter, after confirming that they lacked any municipal building permits. According to the Agency, these structures occupied a significant portion of the land and had not obtained any authorization for their construction. Following the appropriate procedures, the structures were demolished, and the land has been restored to its previous natural state. According to current urban planning regulations, any building or installation intended to house animals requires prior municipal authorization. The Agency reminds the public that, although some owners attempt to justify these types of constructions as "houses" or for other uses, these spaces are also subject to licensing, especially when located on rural land.