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Islander wellbeing and collective effort crucial to softening sting of economic crisis, says Alejandra Ferrer

foto 2020 debat estat 1Local leaders came together today in the plenary hall of the Consell de Formentera for the first of two debates on the state of local affairs. Local premier Alejandra Ferrer opened the gathering with remarks about the current landscape, a stock-taking of governance and a look at actions ahead.

Before overviewing efforts in recent months to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, Formentera’s chief officer extended condolences “to the family and friends of our fellow islander who lost her life to Covid-19” and “to all those who have lost loved ones to this crisis”.

The premier highlighted the fact that the 14 March invocation of emergency orders to combat Covid-19 came days after the Consell had already ordered the closure of various services in an effort to keep islanders safe and limit spread of the virus.

She pointed out that “through lockdown, lockdown easing and constant changes to directives for islanders and island businesses, every branch of local government took great pains to communicate and keep islanders in the know so protocol could be followed”.

“Little by little we exited lockdown, and our efforts were rewarded:” —Ferrer recounted— “Formentera was one of the first to begin de-escalation, a transition to the new normal that tested more than the managerial abilities of our administration and local businesses; it tested islanders’ own adaptive capacity”.

Diada de Formentera
The Consell chief also drew attention to local government’s programming around Formentera’s yearly celebration, the Diada de Formentera, describing it as “a thank-you to the island’s essential service providers who, by helping us remain calm throughout the state of emergency, guaranteed not only our safety, but our quality of life too”, she said.

Economic reactivation
On Formentera’s reopening to tourism, President Ferrer said that the rosy outlook around the public health situation in early summer and Formentera’s head start on the new normal “made for a relatively good season—one in which most local establishments managed to reopen”. “But nothing could stop late August”, she said, “with spiking numbers of national and international infections that brought the high season to an abrupt end”.

By Ferrer’s lights, everyone played a part in Formentera’s ability to demonstrate managerial flair — a strength she promised would “help in the run-up to summer 2021, when efforts will need to centre on cementing Formentera’s status as a safe-as-possible destination”.

“The public health crisis hasn’t disappeared and the current state of affairs is eminently complicated”, asserted the premier. “Coming out on the other side will mean taking things slowly and acting sensibly”, Ferrer insisted, “but it’s also going to take personal responsibility, collective effort and capacity to adapt to evolving situations”.

Social and business relief
“Everybody knows that the worst of the economic contraction lies ahead”, Ferrer stated. “The Consell has already issued what will likely be the first in a line of decrees outlining an economic and fiscal response to the economic and social fallout from the Covid-19 public health crisis”.

As she pledged to continue “shaping new measures and initiatives to help islanders cope the consequences of the pandemic and support Formentera’s social and economic fabric”, the president highlighted the following measures:

-Safeguards to strengthen social support systems for families, businesses, employees and freelancers
-Immediate relief for the most at-risk individuals and families
-Strengthening the fabric of the local business community
-Building community cohesion and social support so that no islander is left behind
-Economic reactivation
-Economic diversification including help for agriculture and emerging technologies with an eye to attracting new business and entrepreneurs

“Our end-game is to soften the economic toll of this public health crisis on islanders, the local tourism sector and Formentera businesses”, said the president. “Collective efforts will be vital to reorganising and reactivating the island’s economy. One thing is clear: many people are facing challenges and relatively few resources are available. Our approach must be sensible, and the priority needs to be easing the tax burden on vulnerable families and businesses so we can return to normal as soon as the public health situation permits”.

Social services
Ferrer underscored efforts to create more robust support for families and enable the island’s social services to fast-track payments related to social welfare and family assistance. Expedited payouts also include those made to the Consell’s own service providers, Ferrer said.

According to Ferrer, the situation currently unfolding has laid bare the essential role of social services and the need to reexamine social policy. The following measures are among those already enacted by the Consell de Formentera to fortify the social safety net and guaranteed basic income:

-Putting €325,000 originally intended for the 2020 cycle of Formentera’s participatory spending initiative toward deflecting the crisis’s effect on local families’ pocketbooks
-Freeing up a part of the 2019 surplus for investments in social policies in 2020
-Reallocating €300,000 for food and basic necessities
-Bolstering assistance included in a deal with Formenterers Solidaris (€30,000)

Ferrer also underscored a budget tweak voted in last month’s plenary assembly which will translate into distinct lines of funding this winter, promising that “the biggest among them will go to housing and social welfare”, said the premier.

Sustainable island
Ferrer devoted the second half of her remarks to efforts to make Formentera more environmentally, socially, culturally and economically sustainable.

In Ferrer’s words, “so far as attracting visitors and shaping tourism strategies is concerned, the idea couldn’t be clearer. We must lead with what sets us apart in terms of culture, environment and heritage while bettering services for tourists and quality of life for islanders”. The challenge in 2021, she said, will boil down to being able to “offer reassurances on public health safety and on our ability to ensure the safety of visitors and residents alike”.

Right to housing
One particularly crucial task, Ferrer said, is that of safeguarding people’s basic rights, “and that includes having access to decent housing”. The premier described such access as “one of the most serious problems faced by islanders” and insisted public health turmoil had only made things worse. In that sense, Ferrer trumpeted the decision to direct €150,000 of the recent spending tweak to targeted housing assistance.

“Put simply, our top priorities are young people, training opportunities and not only access, sanitation upgrades, growing towns, streamlining administrative formalities, supporting our small-town business community, creating infrastructure for old people and fostering all islanders’ active participation in local government, promoting basic exercise, supporting culture, rehabilitating local heritage, completing our network of bike lanes, putting in place a new transport service, monitoring and limiting moorage, improving organic waste management, investing in clean energy, investing in our farmers’ co-operative and local agriculture and, 365 days a year, building a Formentera that offers better possibilities to its businesses and, in doing so, improves available jobs and builds a more balanced society”.

Ferrer concluded by pointing to her administration’s overarching goal and the “driving force behind all our efforts: a better, happier life for everyone”. “Since the creation of the Consell, Formentera has gone through serious changes and delivered on historical pleas, and the time has come to think about what kind of island we want to be. Formentera is a place where quality of life, and people, come first.”

Party members took the floor to offer their own remarks following Ferrer’s speech. Ferrer used the time accorded for her rebuttal to close the day’s session. In a second session on Tuesday 6 October, party representatives will propose items for debate in the plenary assembly.

1 October 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera

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

Street dance hits Formentera

cartell 2020 L Illa a EscenaWith the new season of L’Illa a Escena fast approaching, Formentera has begun preparing for the arrival of Let’s dance about Love, the latest offering from Lleida-based dance troupe Dancescape.

A two-performer production that discusses love using the language of movement, Let’s dance about Love treats audiences to a tour of the multiple phases of love —particularly the puppy variety— and narrates the journey through dance, musicality and language. The atmosphere that crystallises is one in which protagonism is shared between the dancers and the crowd: they find common ground in sensations, recognise one anothers’ feelings, thoughts and experiences... It is these experiences that will permit the vivacious choreography of Let’s dance about love to raze the walls between dancer and spectator.

Love is something you feel, something you talk about, something you dance...

The show starts at 7.00pm on Saturday 3 October at Sala de Cultra (Cinema). Tickets are €5.

Tickets must be reserved in advance. Bookings can be made until 10.00am, the Friday before the show, by sending an email to reserves@conselldeformentera.cat.

30 September 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera

Formentera gears up for Formentera 2.0 and Formentera Fotogràfica

foto 2020 f.20 3The Formentera Department of Tourism reports that from tomorrow, Thursday 1 October to Sunday 4 October, the island will play host to Formentera 2.0 and Formentera Fotogràfica. Consell premier and tourism chief Alejandra Ferrer underscored efforts centred on guaranteeing the two events, originally scheduled to take place in May, take place in lock-step with public health protocol to avoid spread of Covid-19, and said the programming highlights the “firm commitment to elongating the tourist season in a year as complicated as this one”.

A digital communication and networking event currently in its eighth year, this year’s intimately scaled Formentera 2.0 will bring together thirty professionals from the world of digital culture. Eight speakers will discuss topics including the digital transformation, social media, creativity, the world of multimedia, video and digital marketing, content and communication and digital platforms. Attendance at the lectures is closed to the public but twenty spaces have been set aside so islanders not taking part in the rest of the event can attend a special Saturday afternoon lecture by “Instagramers” founder Phil González in Plaça de la Constitució. Contact info@formentera20 to request tickets.

Formentera Fotogràfica celebrates its eighth edition over the same four-day period. Sixty-five photography lovers have already signed up to attend the event, also atypically intimate given the circumstances. Fourteen figureheads of contemporary photography will offer classes running the gamut from hands-on to theory-driven, creating a space for collective reflection and creation in a closed-to-the-public format. As in years past, Formentera Fotogràfica organisers have led with an eclectic and intergenerational programme playing on equal parts local talent and marquee names from the national and international photography scenes.

30 September 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera

Consell pushes forestry service to continue dustings to stop pine processionary

Formentera’s conseller for the environment, Antonio J. Sanz, petitioned the Balearic chief of natural spaces and biodiversity, Llorenç Mas, to move forward with spraying aimed at stemming local spread of the pine processionary — a measure that won cross-party support in the July plenary assembly of the Consell de Formentera.

Sanz was on hand at a gathering hosted today by the regional ministry of environment and land to appraise islanders of this year’s projected resumption of aerial dusting and to take stock of efforts to control the species’ growth on the island.

Sanz applauded “Herculean efforts by the ministry in recent years to combat the pest” and held up findings indicating the pine processionary’s numbers were up: not only have municipal crews captured ever increasing moths in the summer, they have also logged growing numbers of the caterpillar’s nests in wintertime, registering colonies beyond the initial concentration in Es Cap de Barbaria.

The pine processionary has expanded into Porto-salè, Sant Ferran de ses Roques, Cala en Baster, Es Mal Pas, Migjorn and Tramuntana — “likely due to restrictions on aerial dustings in protected natural spaces, areas dedicated to beekeeping and organic farming, marshes and other land near the coast where 100-metre buffer zones have been necessary”, said Formentera’s environment chief.

Noting that the contract on the pine processionary control strategy is set to expire this year if no extension is awarded, Sanz called for funding to the tune of €200,000 to ensure the effort could continue in 2021 and beyond.

29 September 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera

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