Interview with Sandra Benbeniste

Hello Sandra, it is an utmost pleasure to have you back in dub, and I can see the ‘Ibiza Preservation Fund’ association is more important than ever before.

First, for all who still don’t know, tell us what is the IPF.

Hello Andy. Thank you very much for your interest in our work and for giving us the chance to share it with your readers.

The foundation for the conservation of Ibiza and Formentera (or ‘Ibiza Preservation Fund’ – IPF) aims to help to conserve the value and beauty of our island’s nature, as well as its sustainability. We support projects related to the protection of rural and marine areas, and to comprehensive topics like our water or renewable energies. We receive donations from people and businesses that care about the future of Ibiza and Formentera, those who want to help or ‘give back’ to the islands what they give to them. We always work with other local organizations in form of collaborations or alliances, as we believe in the importance of uniting our efforts.

The island is subject to an invasion of people from all over the world, on the one hand because there is ongoing wars on the other side of the Mediterranean where people can not go to spend their holidays, but also because Ibiza still has this very special charm. What are the primary objectives you are working on to make the island a better place?

The index of human presence reached almost 400.000 people in August last year on the Pitiusas. That means that a lot of the services like water, electricity, traffic and purification plants on the islands , designed for a population of about 140.000 residents, collapse. From our side we are coordinating, together with the University of Baleares, a study about the loading capacity, with the aim to develop indicators for sustainability. We want to present technical information on the table to help and create an amicable vision of the future we wish for.

The polemic about the oil drillings is still an important topic, what is your opinion about the latest move of the national government to vote against the law to prohibit those drillings in the spanish Mediterranean?

From our side we are very proud to have helped to create the Alianza Mar Blava against the drillings of oil companies, uniting all different sectors of the islands, making it an example of this shared and sustainable vision we spoke about before. We achieved to stop four different drilling projects on our shores, and as you just said our aim is to introduce a law against those projects to avoid that other companies can get a license for new drillings. But even if we managed to get all political parties in the Balearic parliament to agree to such law it is much more difficult on a national level as the ‘Partido Polular’ and ‘Ciudadanos’ still is in favor of searching for fossil fuels. They plead economic reasons, but basically it is about the debate of how to create a new model for energy supply and the vision of renewable energies.

In any case this is an obsolete discussion as already the manes implement what it is about, ‘fossil fuels’ and ‘renewable energies’. who can seriously opt for the first ones only ti maximize their earnings knowing that one day they will be gone?

These multinational oil and electricity companies know very well that the days of fossil fuels are coming to an end, but they will wan to to squeeze even the last drop in order to make money out of it. Lots of those companies already have departments dedicated to investigate renewable energies, and ironically they are still the lobbyists against it (and tremendously slow down its development) on one hand while the other is working on positioning them the best they can for the moment when fossil fuels are no longer profitable.

How can we sensitize the people in Ibiza to use our resources instead of abusing them? For example, the excessive consumption of water during summer…

That is a very good question. We need everybody involved, privates and companies, and definitely the help of media like yours, to be able to reach tourists and residents alike. Via the ‘alliance for water’ we launched the campaign ‘enjoy the island, safe water’ for the second consecutive year with the help of restaurants, hotels and real estate companies. We invite every body to join us and participate in becoming ‘friends’ with the alliance for water so everybody bocomes aware of the importance and shortage of this resource.

The topic of the Xylella is a very tricky one on the island, is there an ambiental desaster on the rise in autumn? Tell us about it and what can  be done to avoid it.

The ‘Xylella Fastidiosa’ is one of the most precarious topics at the moment, because nobody knows what will happen. It is a bacteria that attacks trees and bushes, and it spreads through the stitch of insects. Up to date no cure has been found. In California they deal with it for many years already and many millions have been invested in the search for a cure, but none was found. In the south of Italy they had to clear massive plantations of olive trees to try to control the plague.

Do our islands get closer to the objective of being 100% sustainable? This is one of your principal objectives, no? and ours as well of course.

A sustainability reaching 100% in all aspects is very complex, we better go in parts. One concrete dimension to talk about is the energetic one. These islands could be 100% renewable. Right now Ibiza produces not even 0,5% of its consumption with renewable energies, which is a disaster if you look at the hours of sun that we count on. We from the IPF are close to finish a guide about solar energy in Ibiza that has the aim to overcome disinformation, myths and existing mistrust. Even if we do not have the best of legislations, any singular house can install solar panels to cover a good part of its energy consumption, recovering the investment in a few years time.

Do you think that the bubble of real estate investment and all that comes with it will burst  in the near future?

I guess i am not the one to answer this question… There are many geopolitical and economical factors involved. What i do know is that any property owner of a house or a business on the island should wish for the preservation of the beauty and nature we have, because if not it will affect the value of his investment as well.

If you’d have a magic wand and could change three things in Ibiza instantly, what would they be?

1 I would love to be able to reach a political and social consent like the one in Menorca that lead to elaborate a steady territorial plan of the island that outlives the political changes (in Ibiza the priorities change every four years due to the fact that the political parties change and with it their orientation).

2 I would love to see all cars and motorcicles being electric, charged with solar energy, and a network of buses that is efficient and frequent to be able to become a real alternative to private transportation.

3 I would like to see local and ecologic products being the majority of the ones consumed on the island, that our farmers receive a price that is worth the money so their profession becomes dignified. Like this many young people could go back to work on the fields, in good conditions, so the pine trees stop invading our ancient terraces of cultivation (and with it reducing the risk of wildfires).

We work on all those different topics, and our vision is ambitious. We need the help of all of us to make it happen! Thank you very much.

Thank you Sandra with the whole team of the IPF and all other organisations that work for our islands to be the paradise they can be, and not only for us but more importantly for the future generations to come.

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more info:

Ibiza Preservation Fund