With €112K in available funding, call for Save Posidonia Project proposals draws eleven contenders

foto 2020 SPPAfter the original call for ideas was pushed back on account of the pandemic, the Formentera Department of Environment reports that eleven submissions were received in response to a call for Save Posidonia Project proposals. Applicants will compete for up to €112,000—the amount that was raised prior to December 2019.

The announcement was made as part of remarks by environment chief Antonio J. Sanz during Posidonia Networks 2020, a virtual forum whose attendees include leading European experts on the environment and one which is backed by the Balearic Ministry of Environment and the French Office of Biodiversity.

During a presentation in which the local environment chief portrayed the Consell-backed SPP as an increasingly well-established initiative since its launch in 2017, Sanz said that belated start aside, the overall picture —25 proposals in two years— was positive. “In a short period of time SPP has proven itself to be an invaluable tool in shaping awareness at the local and government level”, he said.

Forum attendees are intimately familiar with policy in the Balearic Islands, which stand at the forefront of legislation on posidonia conservation. That familiarity isn’t just a product of the Balearic Islands’ pioneering service to monitor ships anchored on local coastlines and educate crews about moorage regulations; it’s also due to extensive educational pushes on Formentera.

A pioneer framework project in the western Mediterranean, SPP sprang from an impulse within the Consell de Formentera to promote sustainable tourism and raise money that could be exclusively devoted to conservation of Posidonia oceanica.

In its first year, SPP gave €83,822 to the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies (IMEDEA) and €48,836 to the environmental advocates at GEN-GOB.

1 October 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera