On Monday, the Balearic government approved the General Ports Plan for the Balearics which bans any new infrastructure or the expansion of existing marinas.
The 15-year-plan has been devised to grant greater access for the public to the sea and the nautical world in an “efficient and sustainable” way, without the construction of new ports or new expansion.
At present, the regional government's ports authority, PortsIB, manages 47 ports, 13 low-impact anchoring areas and 13 ramp facilities, as well as some 14,500 moorings.
Minister for mobility, Josep Marí, explained that the new plan aims to maintain public management as a guarantee of public access to nautical areas, optimising infrastructure and promoting new services and new ways to enjoy the nautical world.
The plan “responds” to a growing demand for access to navigation, efficient management of port spaces and to achieve new formulas so that, for example, the same moorings can be used by more people.
“The challenge has been to find new ways to democratise access to the sea and increase the efficiency of current infrastructure, with the intention of collaborating in the creation of a more sustainable and collaborative nautical sector,” said Marí.
The plan also proposes specific low-impact solutions to the problems affecting the sector, such as the creation of temporary anchoring areas with low-impact buoys and a network of dry marinas integrated into the environment, mainly in inland areas or close to existing ports.