The hoteliers' association in Paguera and Cala Fornells has entered an agreement with the town hall in Calvia by which environmental awareness is to be raised among tourists through specific activities such as beach cleaning and reforestation.
Mayor Alfonso Rodríguez and Antonio Mayol, the hoteliers' president, have come to this agreement, and it is intended that visitors will take part in these activities as part of a pilot urban ecology project. In addition to environmental awareness, aims of the scheme are to promote winter tourism and natural heritage conservation.
Yesterday, a first step in this project was taken with a day of reforestation in the Talaia area of Paguera, where twelve hectares of forest were lost in a fire in 2011. This was a specific initiative involving the hoteliers' association and the regional environment ministry. It also involved tourists under the programme European Winter, activities for which have been organised by the town hall since 2011. In addition to reforestation, an objective is to maintain the landscape appeal of the area, while tourists are given brief instruction on correct ways to carry out protection and reforestation work and on best practice for conserving natural heritage and preventing soil erosion.
The beach-cleaning scheme, which also includes cleaning of the seabed, was started in 2007. Since then, it has been undertaken each year with the aims of conservation and awareness-raising regarding coastal protection among tourists, tour operators, local residents and businesses.
In 2015, 640 kilos of rubbish were collected and added to a total which has risen to 12,605 kilos since the project was started.