Ibiza Cares Fundation
We meet up at the Agroturismo Atzaró with Christian Roig Brown, creator and manager, and Noemí Tur Mayans, president of the Ibiza Cares Foundation, who explain how this project was born, “due to the need to create more efficient models to manage Ibiza’s natural resources.”
While we are sitting drinking coffee, they explain that “Ibiza needs to find a model of tourism development where economic growth and environmental protection are treated equally, as they both depend on it for their survival.”
Noemí states that “the Foundation bases its actions on the ‘Cradle to Cradle’ (C2C) principle which is what it literally means.” This is a concept inspired by nature itself and does not include waste production. The C2C approach moves away from traditional environmentalism, as its main aim is not to reduce consumption but to redesign the system, so that used products can be reintroduced into the production process, rather than being disposed of as waste.
Noemí and Christian
Christian points out that, “at the Foundation, we are working on several actions with three main focus points: water, urban solid waste and ecological agriculture.” “The problem of water supply in Ibiza and its subsequent treatment requires immediate action to correct salinisation and overexploitation of the aquifers, as well as to offer a solution to the inefficient purification of wastewater, a serious problem we have in the island,” he adds.
In view of the new law for treating waste and contaminated soils in the Balearic Islands, which will come into force in 2019, we need to take action to comply with this, following more sustainable practices that allow the revaluation of residues instead of their disposal.
Finally, ecological agriculture: the conservation of our environment means that we are giving it importance, and what better way to do this than, reviving the Ibizan countryside and restoring its splendour, generating a new economic engine that maintains and preserves the landscape.
To finance these projects, the Ibiza Cares Foundation has created Flors i Violes: a supplier that sells all kinds of flowers, edible and aromatic plants and herbs, whose profits are destined for this purpose. At Ibiza Cares “they hope that all Ibizan community members will take part in this initiative and especially encourage restaurateurs to contribute towards this action.”
We are all Ibiza.
