The foundation IbizaPreservation destined 548.000 euros to environmental projects in 2023the entity informed this Monday after the publication of its annual report, coinciding with its fifteenth anniversary. This is the highest amount in its history, which began in 2008 and since then has totaled 2.5 million euros invested in environmental projects 60 environmental projects for the Pitiusas.
As of 2018, most of these funds have been allocated to the foundation’s own projects, including Ibiza Produce and the Sustainability Observatory, and to finance the coordination work of the Plastic Free Ibiza and Formentera alliance, formed by twelve other entities. Among the new initiatives carried out in 2023, the Protegim ses sargantanes project stands out, dedicated to the protection of the Pitiusa lizard against invasive snakes, with 36,000 euros invested.
The foundation highlights having been selected by the European Erasmus program to carry out the new Zero Waste Chefs EU project in collaboration with vocational training centers in Ibiza and Tallinn (Estonia).
The president of the Board of Trustees of IbizaPreservation, Philip Muelder, notes in the foreword to the report that “there is a marked difference today in the level of interest and support across all sectors for sustainability issues”. He adds that this translates into increased fundraising that provides the “financial stability needed” to expand the organization’s strategic programs and invest in projects that “will yield results in the short, medium and long term”.
IbizaPreservation highlights in the press release that in its 15 years of trajectory it has achieved “numerous significant impacts”. Some of the achievements include the elimination of 30,467 kilos of plastic from the supply chain through the Plastic Free Balearics certification, the planting of 2,350 trees, the production of five annual sustainability reports from its Sustainability Observatory and the mapping of 572 km² of the island of Ibiza in a study of land use. In addition, it has awarded 366 scholarships to educate schoolchildren about the marine environment, financed the mapping of 150 km² of posidonia meadows, and produced an online directory that includes 110 local products on the Ibiza Produce website.
One of the contributions of which the foundation is “most proud” was the enactment of a state law banning hydrocarbon prospecting in Spanish territorial waters through the Mar Blava Alliance, of which IbizaPreservation was one of the founding entities in 2013, in response to oil prospecting in the waters off Ibiza and Formentera.