Terraferida denounces a "monstrous villa" in Son Vida and attacks UNESCO
The environmental organization considers that buildings like this go against the declaration of World Heritage of Tramuntana
PalmaTerraferida has reported the construction of a large villa in Son Vida (Palma) and has used the case to question the real utility of the declaration of the Serra de Tramuntana as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The environmental organization assures that this international distinction "has served for nothing" and accuses institutions of allowing new urban aggressions while displaying the protection seal.
The images released by the organization show a large-scale work opened on a rocky slope, with significant earthworks, excavations, and heavy machinery. Terraferida describes the project as a "monstrous villa" and denounces its visual and landscape impact.
"A figure that has served for nothing, only to attract capital and destroy the Serra", the entity has criticized on social networks. In other messages, environmentalists ask if Unesco plans to act in the face of "the destruction" of the territory or if it will continue to be "an accomplice" of landscape degradation. "Does Unesco not consider any warning to our Government? There are more than enough reasons to withdraw the distinction from the Serra, attacked from all sides", they add.
World Heritage since 2011
The Serra de Tramuntana was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2011 as a cultural landscape, a recognition that distinguished the environmental, historical, and ethnological value of the territory. The candidacy, promoted by the Consell de Mallorca, was then presented as a tool for the preservation and projection of the Serra.
However, environmental groups have for years questioned the real effectiveness of this protection and denounce that the UNESCO designation has also become a lure for luxury real estate and urban pressure.
Furthermore, the controversy reopens the debate on the urban planning model of Son Vida, a luxury development initiated in the sixties and expanded with the urban development of the late eighties. The area has become one of the main high-level residential enclaves in Mallorca.
The complaint by Terraferida coincides with the processing of the Serra de Tramuntana law promoted by the Consell de Mallorca. Several entities consider that the text does not incorporate new territorial protection measures or relevant urban planning limitations and lament that the norm does not more forcefully confront the urban and tourist pressure that the territory suffers. According to environmentalists, the case of Son Vida exemplifies the contradiction between the institutional narrative of protection of the Serra and the urban permissiveness that continues to transform the landscape of Mallorca.