Tourists get involved in the conservation of the Serra de Tramuntana with Amics de la Terra
Thursday on 26th of April, thirty people, among German tourists and local people participated in the second volunteer workshop organized by Amics de la Terra Mallorca to help in the environmental recovery of olive trees and dry-stone walls in the Serra de Tramuntana. In this workshop we also tried to improve the tourist’s environmental awareness by understanding the importance of its maintenance and the difficulties to preserve this landscape, declared World Heritage by UNESCO.
Twenty German tourists and ten volunteers from Amics de la Terra Mallorca spent the day working in the Biniaraix ravine with in situ explanations about the natural and cultural heritage of the Serra de Tramuntana. They learned the technique and helped to restore the margin with a professional dry wall worker, so they have understood then the hard work that this artisanal architecture implies.
They helped in the restoration of the traditional olive terraces by removing invasive vegetation such as the common reed or some pines. After the work they could taste local products and ended the journey with a visit to Centre Capvespre, in Sóller, to know about the different varieties of olive oils and oil production in the mill of the Cooperative.
The workshop was a success. The tourists felt very proud to know more about the unique natural space of the Serra de Tramuntana, as well as the overall challenges for its restoration and maintenance. They were very pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to its conservation and establish contact with local people.
There are going to be two more days of volunteering with more tourists in May and autumn. These workshops are part of the “Protect the Tramuntana” Amics de la Terra Mallorca in collaboration with BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) and BTE (experts in sustainable tourism) supported by the German Public Foundation DBU. Under the same project we have already done some training sessions and mountain guides supported by the Council of Mallorca, a survey of more than 200 German hikers on their reasons for visiting the Serra, as well as an online directory that soon will be presented with several stalls selling local products from the Serra to encourage their purchasing.
On Friday 27th, we held a meeting for the assessment of the project Raixa with local authorities and German promoters of the project “Protect the Serra de Tramuntana” (Friends of the Earth Mallorca, Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND), BTE and DBU ) and partner organizations and stakeholders such as the Consortium of the Serra de Tramuntana – Consell de Mallorca, Sports and Technicians Association of Mountain Guides Islands, HOA Biniaraix ravine, Centre Capvespre (Sóller) and the Association Tramuntana XXI.
The overall assessment of the project is very good, and it has been evaluated the workshops feasibility to be kept in the future by everybody involved.
