A FAMILY from Luxembourg has bought the s'Espalmador island off the north coast of Formentera 'for their own private use' for the sum of €18 million, according to the Balearic regional government.
A small, uninhabited islet under a protection order, s'Espalmador previously belonged to an architect from Catalunya, Norman Cinnamond, and his sister Rosy, who tried unsuccessfully to sell it to the island council of Formentera.
Cinnamond and his sister say the central-European buyers are 'fully aware' of the fact the islet is under a conservation régime as it forms part of the Ses Salines nature reserve, shared by Formentera and Ibiza.
Formentera was keen to take up the offer to buy s'Espalmador when the Cinnamond family offered it to them, so it would become public land, and hoped to obtain funding from the Balearic regional government and the Spanish State to do so, but was unable to get the money together, according to MP for the independent party Gent per Formentera, Silvia Tur.
Sra Tur has urged the regional government to meet with the Luxembourgois owners and explain the island's protected status to them.
“What is most important, irrespective of whoever the owner is, is that the islet is properly conserved and no activities which are not permitted by law are carried out there,” Tur says.
She admitted that 'like the vast majority of Formenterans', she would have liked the island council to have been able to buy it with the help of State funds.
Activities 'not permitted by law' would include anything that disrupts or damages the flora and fauna or radically alters the appearance of s'Espalmador.
This means building of any kind would not be allowed there.
Photograph: Wikimedia Commons
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