The environmental report mandates an ordinary evaluation of the moorings at Cala Saona

The Director General of Urban Harmonization and Environmental Assessment, Maria Paz Andrade Barberá, has resolved to subject the Cala Saona mooring project, in the municipality of Formentera, to an ordinary environmental impact assessment, concluding that it may have significant adverse effects on the environment. The decision is published in the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands (BOIB) no. 128, of October 10, 2026, section III, pages 55019 to 55027, with file reference 105A/2025. The resolution bears an electronic signature dated May 28, 2026, and depends on the Department of Housing, Territory and Mobility.

A field of 48 mooring points on a sandy bottom

The project, promoted by Soluciones la Boya Ibiza, S.L. (XN-288/25), provides for the installation of 48 mooring points for vessels between 10 and 20 meters in length in the bay of Cala Saona. The anchorages would be ecological Manta Ray type, with a nylon head, SeaFlex shock absorber, and marking with SPAR buoys 2.13 meters in length.

• Two polygons with a total area of 28.61 hectares.
• First polygon: 6.84 hectares and capacity for 9 vessels (8 of 15 meters and 1 of 20 meters).
• Second polygon: 21.77 hectares and capacity for 39 vessels (13 of 10 meters, 23 of 15 meters, and 3 of 20 meters).
• Prior removal of all anthropic elements from the seabed, such as concrete ballast moorings, vessel remains, and waste.

The promoter discarded the zero alternative, which would attribute damage to the seabed and the Ibiza-Formentera fiber optic cable, and chose ecological mooring over concrete blocks.

Three contradictory reports from administrations

The environmental body consulted seven administrations and entities, and the responses were divergent.

• Directorate General of Natural Environment and Forest Management (July 11, 2025): unfavorable report, because the project may appreciably affect habitats and species of the Natura 2000 Network.
• Directorate General of the Coast and the Sea (December 15, 2025): compatible with conditions, with a validity of four years and the obligation of a prior underwater survey for Pinna nobilis.
• Environmental Area of the Insular Council of Formentera (June 30, 2025): negative report, because it does not provide an integral solution to the island’s mooring and privatizes the area.
• Estrategias Marinas, Red Natura 2000 of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, the Marine Resources Service of the Directorate General of Fisheries, GEN GOB Ibiza, and Amics de la Terra were also consulted.

Protected habitats and nautical pressure

The entirety of the project is located within the ZEC ES5310109 Cala Saona Marine Area, declared by agreement of the Governing Council on May 22, 2020, and within the ZEPA ES0000515 Marine Space of Formentera and Southern Ibiza, as well as the Marine Reserve of the Freus of Ibiza and Formentera. The seabed hosts meadows of Posidonia oceanica and Cymodocea nodosa, habitats of community interest, and species such as the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta).

The report indicates that the buoy field overlaps by 50% with the area where the Natura 2000 Management Plan of Formentera already allows conditioned free anchoring on sand for vessels under 16 meters. It also warns that the project does not eliminate nautical pressure, but rather concentrates it and may displace it toward adjacent meadows or toward Cap de Barbaria, and recalls that Cala Saona is a traditional cove for raors (large sea bream) and gerrets (sand steenbras).

Public information and next steps

With this resolution, the project moves to ordinary evaluation and the substantive body must submit it, together with the environmental impact study, for public information for a period of no less than thirty days through publication in the BOIB and on the electronic headquarters. The study must follow article 35 of Law 21/2013 and articles 21, 22, and 31 of Legislative Decree 1/2020.

The report is not subject to an autonomous appeal and is issued without prejudice to urban planning competencies and the authorizations necessary for the approval of the project.

The decision comes after years of claims from the Insular Council of Formentera, which since 2015 has requested a comprehensive regulation of anchorages and approved it in a plenary session in 2019. For recreational boating users and the tourism sector of Formentera, the ruling delays the buoy field and opens a process for allegations in which the protection of the posidonia and the viability of artisanal fishing will be the center of the debate.

Fuente: BOIB, no. 128, October 10, 2026, section III, p. 55019 (official reference: exp. 105A/2025, document 1230217).