13/11/2009

The City Council of Palma develops an ambitious plan aimed at adapting and recovering the Bellver forest, within the scope of which it wil focus on the forest's recovery to ensure its conservation and maintenance as well as on mending the lack of attention given to the forest during the last few years.

The development of this plan is being supervised by a special commission made up of specialists from different municipal departments, from the Council of Agriculture, from the UIB's biology department, from the Official Chamber and Association of Forest Engineers and by the Fire Brigade, the Police and the GOB as well as by a representative of the neighbourhood association and the mayoress or the appointed councillor.

Besides, the City Council of Palma has developed, at the same time, several strategies related to the management of the Bellver park, where two major factors for its conservation converge:

- The natural values: The geology, the plants, the animals and the existing correlation between them.
- The cultural values: The human elements that, due to their historical significance, are worth safeguarding.

Keeping in mind the objectives of recovering and protecting the Bellver forest, the planned measures are aimed at:

- The conservation and recovery of the fauna and flora
- The regulation of the forest's use and activities developed therein
- The conditioning of the areas close to the castle
- Determine its purposes and functions: For recreational, educational and ecological purposes.

The recovery of the Bellver forest implies the implementation of several projects led by different departments of the City Council of Palma.

The Department for Infrastructures has updated the plan for the use and management of the Bellver forest in order to achieve an improved effectiveness and efficiency in this area. The updated plan stipulates the criteria for its recovery and its use, detailed in a comprehensive plan for the regulation of the landscape use and management that includes the following measures:

1. Improve the connections to the city.

2. Improve the points of access.

3. Regulate the interior routes connecting the existing areas for the development of activities (children playgrounds, Bellver chapel, Mounted Police, ecological orchard, retreat houses and the Castle).

4. Creation of new areas for the development of activities.

5. Improve the current main access to the Castle and its car park area (separate the itineraries for pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles, car parks connected with the main routes, etc.).

6. Recover the landscape in the Castle's immediate surroundings.

7. Manage the landscape of the entire complex, regulating the signposting and protection systems as well as the urban elements, the illumination and the provision of a service infrastructure adapted to the new proposal for the regulation of use.

According to law, upon request of the Fire Brigade of Palma and following the recommendations of the Council for the Environment of the Balearic Government, a project to adapt and improve the existing path in order to increase the security in the forest and of the adjacent residential areas has been developed.

The project has been developed for over a year and has been supervised by the Technical Commission and analysed by the specialists from the Department for Infrastructures, who have always been concerned to reduce to the minimum the environmental impact. The project has been developed to meet the following demands:

1. The recovery of secondary paths with the purpose of recovering the forest's native vegetation.

2. The need to adopt measures to prevent fires, to create firewalls, establish the forest's limits or to clean the paths.

3. Upon the request of the Fire Brigade and following the recommendations of the Council for the Environment of the Balearic Government, the conditioning of the surrounding paths in order to enable the access of the Fire Brigade to ensure the safety of the forest in cases of fire.

The adaptation of these surrounding paths will allow for the recovery of vegetation over a surface of 9,500m2 (currently spontaneous trails), enable their use as a hiking circuit, for the practice of sports, for cycling tours and will provide access to people with reduced mobility.

These measures for improvement, that will comprise a surface of 5.5 km˛, will be carried out within the scope of the project developed to adapt the surrounding paths of the Bellver forest in such a way as to protect the forest in case of fire while, at the same time, allow its use for leisure purposes and improve its connection to the different districts.

The first stage of the project to adapt the existing surrounding paths has recently begun.

Area of action: 1,261 m˛ comprising the currently existing surrounding paths in the stretch between the main road until sa Teulera.

Budget: 284.000 €.

Duration of the project's realisation: Approximately two months.

Author of the project: Martiriā Figueres, agricultural engineer and landscape designer.

Measures: Replant the native vegetation of the Bellver forest with seeds from plants from the forest itself or from Mallorca (bushes, pine trees, buckthorn, olive trees...), define the limits of the paths with a wood and wire-mesh fence in order to recover the paths and to avoid bicycles leaving the paths in order to avoid the degradation of the existing vegetation. Besides, encourage the natural recovery of the existing paths.

Objective: The recovery of the Bellver forest is one of the objectives of the City Council of Palma during the next few years. Besides, apart from the recovery of the forest, the project also aims to integrate the park into the new city model, that aims to provide everyone access to the city and connect all citizens.

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