Terraferida promotes a manifesto to stop rural urbanization in Mallorca: "15 km² have been built in a decade"

PalmThe 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.

The organization has warned in a statement that the two main environmental and territorial problems in Mallorca are the massive construction of large villas and the construction of photovoltaic plants on properties that had previously been spared from development.

The recent study by Terraferida entitled Inventory of the devastation of Mallorca 2015-2024 It has quantified the most recent urbanization process, comparing available aerial images with "devastating results" indicating that these 15 km² have been urbanized, equivalent to six times the entire Dragonera.

More than half of this territory has been converted into villas (57%), followed by photovoltaic installations (25%). Terraferida also warns that, far from slowing down, the process is accelerating. While Mallorca lost 141 hectares of crops and forests each year between 2015 and 2021, the rate of destruction accelerated to 833% between 2021 and 2024. Outside the areas protected by Law 1/1991 on natural spaces, every plot of land is now a vacant lot awaiting investment for construction.

Terraferida previously published a study showing that 11,200 building plots remained in rural areas, although the consolidation of plots now accounts for 42% of the licenses granted in the last eight years, pushing the projected number of building plots above 20,000. "The conversion of the countryside into a suburb affects the entire territory and constitutes the most serious environmental threat to Mallorca today," warns Terraferida, which recently launched the 'Foravila, no cranes' campaign. A manifesto, which anyone can sign, has now been added to the campaign, calling for the definitive protection of the Mallorcan countryside.

So far, the campaign has visited four municipalities out of a total of 21 already scheduled and organized by various neighborhood associations, cultural groups, and local centers. The manifesto can be viewed and signed at the following link. link.