Formentera Council and Aliança Mar Blava, united by a single goal

The Formentera Island Council's councilor of the Environment and Information Technologies Sílvia Tur, together with the councilor of Education, Culture and Local Patrimony, Sònia Cardona, met this morning with representatives from the Aliança Mar Blava association in an attempt to reaffirm the collaboration of the two groups and establish a set of guiding principles for their work preserving the natural and marine environments of the island.

The Mar Blava (blue sea) alliance, created in July, unites the efforts of different public institutions and citizens' groups that reject the option of petroleum prospecting in the Gulf of Valencia. Measures adopted by plenary session of the Formentera Council have already condemned the prospecting proposals and even approved the initiation of legal action (either administrative or civil) to impede the execution of the plans.

Plans for petroleum exploration set the predicted start of activity for within the year. Exploration activity supposes extremely high potential impact on the underwater flora and fauna communities that live along the Pitiüsa coastline, the majority of which are located in protected zones or zones that have been labelled 'priority interest' by either the European Habitat Directive or UNESCO's Declaration of World Heritage Sites.

The Formentera Council representatives reaffirmed their support of Aliança Mar Blava's work and endorsed the decisions already made at last July's council plenary session, where an institutional display of support was approved.

The Council wishes to remind readers that this afternoon a conference entitled “Eivissa i Formentera; què defensam davant les prospeccions petrolieres?” (“Eivissa and Formentera; in the face of petroleum exploration, what must we fight for?”) will be held at the cultural assembly hall (Sala d'Actes de Cultura). The conference will include the participation of José Manuel Arcos, coordinator of the SEO/BirdLife marine programme; Vicent Tur, president of the Federació Hotelera de Formentera; Sara Pizzinato, expert on environmental effects of hydrocarbons and secretary of Aliança Mar Blava, and still others.