The GOB (National Government of Catalonia) denounces the "urban planning deregulation" of Prohens in the Tramuntana Mountains to Icomos.

The Mallorca Regional Government (GOB) and the Estellencs Landscape Defense Association have filed two complaints with the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), an advisory body to UNESCO, warning that "the Tramuntana mountain range is in a critical state of degradation, aggravated and accelerated by the deregulatory policies of the Catalan government." The organizations warn that, with the regulatory reforms approved in recent months, the government of Marga Prohens "has turned the mountain range into an unprotected territory in the face of speculative and tourist pressure, putting at risk the universal values that justified its recognition as a World Heritage Site in 2011."

In the documents submitted, the environmental organizations demand that ICOMOS "alert UNESCO to the real risk of losing the values that justify declaring the mountain range as a World Heritage Site" and that it conduct "an independent assessment of the degree of compliance with the mountain range's commitments as a World Heritage Site."

Thus, environmental organizations criticized the Land Acquisition and Administrative Simplification Laws for having an "investor-oriented and rentier" vision of the Tramuntana Mountains, causing a "depletion of real life" in the towns, while the real estate market and tourism are oriented toward "luxury." Similarly, they considered that these measures, "far from regulating saturation, multiply tourist pressure, accelerate gentrification, and open the door to new urban development in the Serra."

GOB spokesperson Margalida Ramis pointed out that the declaration of the Tramuntana Mountains as a World Heritage Site, along with both laws, have generated "tourist and urban development pressure" on this territory, since new developments are made possible using the excuse of a "lack of housing."

Similarly, she considered that at this time "there are more than enough reasons" for UNESCO to withdraw the Sierra's World Heritage status. Therefore, she hoped that ICOMOS would act "forcefully" and that the warnings would not remain "a matter of paperwork," as happened with the first complaint filed by the GOB, as the spokesperson explained.

"We know that ICOMOS cannot force the Government to repeal these regulations, but it can warn that if this is carried out, it may affect the conditions that maintain the declaration," she insisted.

New law for the Sierra

In parallel, the GOB has denounced that the Government "has reduced technical resources and control capacity of environmental and heritage institutions and has stressed that" the new law of the Sierra The complaint warns that the future law "generates more uncertainty than solutions." The entities consider that the participatory process has been "purely formal and without real impact" and warns that the rule "may end up consolidating the model that precisely degrades the heritage charged against the new agrarian law Which, as ARA Baleares announced, will allow professional farms to have up to 10 spaces to accommodate visitors. Furthermore, the complaint lists other impacts such as "touristification, the expulsion of residents, the collapse of mobility, the lack of protection of ethnological heritage, water scarcity and overexploitation, among others."