From February and through the end of March, the Formentera farmers' cooperative, la Cooperativa del Camp, is overseeing restorative pruning on fig trees located on land donated as part of the group's farmland reserve project, Cens de Terres. The goal, says Carlos Marí, head of the cooperative, is to “restore these trees —a quintessential figure of local tradition— to their optimal state and market their fruit this summer”.
Over the last two months Cooperativa members have pruned or propped up the limbs of 89 trees. According to Marí, that number is expected to reach 129 by the time cooperative members finish, “allowing the farmers' cooperative to carry out its first commercial fig harvest”.
As councillor of rural affairs Bartomeu Escandell noted, such pruning is just one part of the rural restoration work established by the joint action partnership between the Formentera Council and the farmers' cooperative. At present more than 140 hectares have been entrusted to the Cooperativa for use in its farmland reserve programme. Said Marí, “many of our donated parcels had been left derelict for many years, so the restorative work will likely be lengthy”.
Before summer, the Formentera Council's office of infrastructure will equip the towns of Sant Ferran and Es Pujols with 15 new lampposts, and a total of 24 lights. According to department head Rafael González, in recent weeks municipal crews have installed nine streetlamps along two Sant Ferran streets, carrers Sol and Castaví, “where the Citroën is located”.
Earlier today councillor of patrimony Susana Labrador, together with staff specialist Jaume Escandell, paid a visit to the archaeological dig site called Es Cap de Barbaria II. Since 29 February and until 18 18 March, a group of 17 specialists have been overseeing “the consolidation and restoration of structures within areas one and three of the Cap de Barbaria II site”. The areas, as Labrador pointed out, were the only two still unrestored by archaeologists over the last two years. The current phase of activity is the fifth and last part of a project entitled “Prehistoric Formentera communities. Archaeology, patrimony and society” (“Les comunitats prehistòriques de Formentera. Arqueologia, patrimoni i societat”). The project began in 2012 and is codirected by Pau Sureda (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Edgard Camarós (Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social), María Ana Cueto and Luís Teira (Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria – Universidad de Cantabria).
This morning in the plenary hall of the Formentera Council, councillor of rural affairs Bartomeu Escandell met with Mateu Ginard, the Govern Balear's director general of agriculture and livestock, as well as the heads of three different local groups – the irrigation organisation of Formentera, the local assocation of livestock farmers and the Formentera farmers' cooperative.
Today through Sunday, March 13th, Formentera will be showing visitors of ITB Berlin everything it's got in terms of sporting events and cycling trails. The aim is to “attract more German visitors to the island in the low season”, explained tourism councillor Alejandra Ferrer at the Balearic community's official presentation at the trade show, an event also attended by CiF president Jaume Ferrer. Over the coming days, the Balearics will be billed as the ideal destination spot for sports and green tourism.