“Mediterranean is at a critical moment...”

THE Duke and Duchess of Palma yesterday inaugurated a two-day conference on “Mediterranean biodiversity and its conservation,” at the Balearic University. The two-day conference has been organised as part of the Bulletin sister newspaper's lecture circuit, Club Ultima Hora, and the Fundación Areces in association with Alicante University's Iberoamerican Biodiversity Centre. The conference, which is being attending by scientists and experts from all over Europe, has come at a “critical moment” for the Mediterranean, according to Eduardo Galante, president of the Spanish committee on the World Nature Union and co-ordinator of the conference. Galante said that there is a “high level of destruction” being carried out in the Mediterrean, hence the need for greater conservation.
He added that one of the areas of great concern is the Balearics and said that public institutions and governments need to make a greater effort to look after the region. “We're in a world where the economic pressures are very strong, but public institutions have to know how to protect and conserve their nature and heritage,” he said. He said that regions such as the Balearics, must not buckle under the economic pressures, for example, exerted by the tourist industry, explaining that it is possible for tourism and the environment to be compatible. Balearic leader Francesc Antich used the event to champion the efforts his government has made to protect and preserve the environment, highlighting initiatives such as the tourist tax to raise extra funds for the environment. Antich stressed the need to create a world “in touch with its surroundings.” Galante praised the Balearic government for the effort it is has made, in particular restricting urban development, “a policy which should be adopted across the Mediterranean, ” he said. “The time has come for us to stop and think about what we are doing to the Mediterranean, develop global policies which apply to the 21st century, not the 20th.” The conference will be used to discuss various green policies and ways in which environmental deterioration in the Mediterranean can he halted before it is too late. Pedro Serra, chairman of the Grupo Serra, which publishes the Bulletin, said that the conference will enable participants to discuss what needs to be done to preserve nature, “something we value highly in Majorca as it is our source of life.” The Duke and Duchess of Palma, the Infanta Cristina and Iñaki Urdangarín, were greeted by Francesc Antich and the Minister for Education and Culture, Pilar del Castillo, on their arrival at the conference which was also attended by a host of local dignitaries, including the Mayor of Palma Joan Fageda, the Balearic Minister for Tourism, Celesti Alomar and the President of the Insular Council of Majorca, María Antonia Munar. After the opening ceremony, the Duke and Duchess visited the Balearic Hostelry School and met the students.