The islands are swallowing up territory: artificial land is growing by 65%.

PalmThe 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 Corine Land Cover project is coordinated by the European Environment Agency and classifies the territory into broad categories according to its use: artificial areas, agricultural areas, forests and wetlands, and bodies of water. In the case of the Canary Islands, the exorbitant increase in transformation and conversion into an increasingly artificial landscape is compounded by the abandonment of crops, which has increased by 12% in the last 30 years. Experts believe that much of this loss of agricultural activity is offset by the increase in forest cover, although "there is also a huge process of rural urbanization underway, which is not always reflected in the model. Therefore, it is possible that, in reality, the transformation of the territory has been even greater in the last 30 years," confirms Marta Pieras.

Macià Blázquez, Professor of Geography at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), agrees with this view. According to this expert, one of the most worrying aspects is precisely the degradation of rural areas, mainly in Mallorca and Menorca. "It's a slow and steady process. Land is bought, subdivided, and villas are built. Then, a swimming pool, tennis courts... everything that amounts to a conversion of the countryside into an urban area—like those images of people making toast," explains Blázquez, and asserts that "this is a complete artificialization." "However authentic it may seem to some city dwellers, what's happening is urbanization and distancing the countryside from its function, which is to produce landscape and food," he concludes.

88% more people

This transformation of the land is occurring in parallel with the most intense demographic shifts the Balearic Islands have experienced. The islands have grown from 655,000 inhabitants in 1981 to over 1.2 million in 2024, representing an increase of nearly 88%. In the case of the Pitiusas Islands, Ibiza has seen its population grow by 157% and Formentera by 170% in four decades. "The main problem is that we have turned this consumption of land into an economic model. We live by exploiting the land, and that has consequences in every area," explains Neus Prats, spokesperson for GEN-GOB, who points out that "there is no water, or it has to be manufactured, and it is polluting more and more." "We have to send our waste to Mallorca because there is no more room, and we have lost invaluable natural spaces forever. It is high time the authorities took the situation seriously because we are destroying everything," she denounces.

One of the processes behind these figures on the artificialization of the land is what some experts have called "green grabbing," notes Macià Blázquez, who warns that "for years, citizen mobilizations were to stop large-scale urbanization on the coast and even..." "These were enormous projects, with many villas, which eventually stopped because they became unsustainable. But now a second wave has arrived, basically driven by people with high purchasing power, who buy land in the interior of the islands, in rural areas. They pose as farmers, obtain preferential farmer authorization, and you realize it's a leisure space that has little or nothing to do with the countryside," he adds.

This system of encroachment on rural areas is a "drip-feed against which no administration acts, because deep down, in most cases, the law allows it," criticizes Blázquez. "The minimum plot size, with the exception of Menorca, is 14,000 square meters in rural areas, and nowadays there's a real scramble to get one and develop it. There's no debate about increasing the square meters required to build on rural land, not even in municipalities governed by progressive parties." We've gone backwards.

The Balearic Islands College of Architects (COAIB) has repeatedly warned of the importance of "preserving rural land" as the last territorial bastion, especially now that population growth has led current governments to seek out these lands as an option for building apartment buildings. "More," remarked Joan Cerdà, the dean of the COAIB in Mallorca, when this option was approved by law.

The underlying issue is an economic model that needs to continue being built to provide jobs for the current population of the Islands. The hotel sector raised its voice when the agricultural law, currently in draft form, included the possibility of bringing tourists into the countryside. But the reality is that the theoretical consensus is not translating into new formulas that offer alternatives and allow us to stop "the land-devouring system that is the current one," says Macià Blázquez.

The Civil Society Forum, which brings together organizations concerned about the social and environmental future of the Islands, believes that "the transition from an economic model based on tourism and construction to a more diversified one is not happening." This has been pointed out on more than one occasion by its spokesperson, Jaume Garau, who reminds us that the pressure on the land and natural resources is being perpetuated "without generating balanced social or economic benefits." Although tourism has lost some ground in the overall economy in recent years, "neither the agricultural sector nor industry shows indicators that suggest it's possible to combat the excessive dependence not only on tourism, but especially on real estate development," a recent Forum report emphasizes. Other voices argue that, to change a way of life geared towards the cement and tourism nexus, a genuine commitment to research is necessary. A region that received 18.7 million tourists in 2024 has only invested 0.48% of its GDP in research and development (R&D). "We are prisoners of an economic growth model that is much more intensive in natural resources and labor. We need to make the transition," stresses Professor of Economics Antoni Riera.