The councilor for the Sea and the Water Cycle, Juan Manuel Lafuente, has taken part in the 5th Forum on Coasts and the Coastline, held at the headquarters of the Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB) in Eivissa and promoted by the Cámara de Comercio de Eivissa y Formentera, where he has detailed the draft Law on the Planning, Protection and Integral Management of the Coastline of the Balearic Islands.
As the Conselleria del Mar y del Ciclo del Agua has indicated in an information note, the event brought together representatives of public institutions, experts in the legal field, agents from the business community and other interested attendees in the application of coastal regulations.
In his talk, Lafuente outlined the central axes of the draft Law on the Planning, Protection and Integral Management of the Coastline of the Balearic Islands, explaining the structure of the text and its main implications.
During the presentation, he delved into the planning instruments provided for in the rule, the distribution of competencies among the different administrations, and the articulation of regional regulation with the basic state legislation in matters of coasts.
A relevant part of his intervention was devoted to traditional coastal heritage, which includes elements such as fishermen’s huts, boat yards, and other historically linked structures tied to uses of the sea and to fishing activity.
The councilor detailed the project’s provisions regarding its identification and protection, adjusted to current regulations and to the legal regime of the maritime-terrestrial public domain.
In this context, he referred to the particularities of Eivissa and Formentera, where small fishing facilities, old boarding points, and other traditional buildings form an essential part of the coastal landscape and of the historical relationship of the population with the shore of the sea.
As the Govern has pointed out, analyzing these situations requires taking into account the heritage and territorial specificities of each case, its legal status, and the conditions for using the public domain.
The talk also addressed the functions that correspond to the Govern, the insular councils and the town councils in the planning and management of the Balearic coastline.
Among the issues discussed are the regulation of activities in the coastal strip, the management of beaches and their services, the conservation of coastal natural spaces, and the guarantee of public use of the coast.
The forum has reserved other sessions to analyze the legal problems arising from the application of the Coastal Law of 1988. The event has served to contrast different legal and institutional views on coastal regulations and their practical application in the different sections of the coastline.