On the first of December 1973, a group of seven people gathered at an office in Palma. The office was that of one of the seven, a lawyer, José María Casasayas. They drafted statutes and became the first partners of an organisation called Grup Balear d’Ornitologia - GOB.
At the time, the Franco regime was in its last throes. There was growing environmental awareness and certainly not just in Mallorca, which had by then ceased to be merely an experiment of mass tourism development. The island was entering a phase towards maturity, other destinations having noted the downsides of an experiment which had been dubbed Balearisation at the end of the 1950s by Paris Match, and so even before the real boom of the sixties.
This was the background to the founding of GOB, who ostensibly were concerned with the protection of birdlife and the conservation of vital habitats on the island, such as those of Albufera and in the Tramuntana. That original concern has never been lost, but it wasn’t to be long before GOB started to become synonymous with a much broader environmental mission.
Two years after the death of Franco, the 1977 defence of the island of Dragonera against planned development firmly established the organisation in the public’s consciousness. The cause of environmental protest attracted public sympathy because security forces had yet to appreciate the changes of post-Franco transition. Water cannon were used in the centre of Palma, while rubber bullets were fired at farmers protesting against the building of the Inca motorway. GOB were to themselves transition into being a highly legitimate and major force - a pressure group that demanded being listened to.
It’s a few months before the official date for the fiftieth anniversary, but on Tuesday (July 11) there will be an event at Palma’s Teatre Principal to celebrate the anniversary. The timing probably won’t be lost on anyone. A new government is in place, one of the right. GOB aren’t a political grouping, but they were close to two of the parties now no longer in government - Més and Podemos. Messages emanating from the new administrations - the government and the Council of Mallorca - already hint at clashes to come. Proposals to extend the Llucmajor-Campos highway to Santanyi and the Inca motorway from Sa Pobla to Alcudia can only head in one direction - controversy.
But fifty years on, where do GOB sit in terms of public sympathy? One controversy in particular has shown that this sympathy can be withdrawn. Prominent supporters of GOB quit their membership over the El Bungalow restaurant row. While it was the Costas Authority which ordered the demolition of the Ciudad Jardín beach restaurant, GOB have regularly agitated in seeking to ensure that the Costas go through with the order.
Like many others, I disagree with the demolition. But shouldn’t the anger be directed at the Costas and the Coasts Law rather than at GOB? They have argued that the law is the law and that it should be complied with. They have made the same argument in respect of work at the Hotel Formentor. When accused that they have been attempting to prevent the rebuilding of the hotel, they have responded that their objective is urban planning legality; it’s not against the developers or the hotel itself.
The GOB website highlights successes over the years. Dragonera was one, the prevention of hotel development near to Es Trenc beach was another, as was the protection of the black vulture and its Tramuntana breeding grounds. There have been campaigns for which there has been strong public support. But there have likewise been issues for which there has been far less support - El Bungalow is a case in point.
That restaurant does now come under even more of a spotlight, as responsibilities for the coasts have been transferred from the Costas Authority to the Balearic government. There is some irony here, as it was a Més senator who made this transfer a condition of supporting Pedro Sanchez’s budget. The senator in question, Vicenç Vidal, was the Balearic environment minister who introduced the law to establish the Es Trenc Nature Park. His successor, Miquel Mir, has gone further in, for instance, the regulation of posidonia sea grass remains from the beach. The remains cannot be removed.
The irony lies in the fact that Més are no longer controlling the environment ministry. At the very moment that the transfer of powers has been made, a right-wing administration has taken over. Es Trenc, one fancies, is going to become a major battleground for GOB, not because of hotel development but because of management of the beaches. And then there is tourism. Who were among the organisers of the huge protest against tourism “massification” in September 2017? GOB.
With another environmentalist body, Terraferida, having given up because they felt they were banging their heads against a brick wall, GOB are very much the leaders of Mallorca’s environmentalism. Whether one agrees with them or not - and I have agreed as much as I have disagreed - they may well be needed more than ever.