- Red Eléctrica's Marine Forest project will help recover two hectares of degraded Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows in Punta l'Avançada.
- It will be a living laboratory open to the scientific community.
Today, at the military airfield of Port de Pollensa (Majorca) the Regional Minister for the Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries of the Balearic Islands' Government, Vicenç Vidal, in the presence of his President, Francina Armengol, and the Chairman of Red Eléctrica de España, José Folgado, have signed a collaboration agreement for the carrying out of Red Eléctrica's Marine Forest, a project aimed at the recovery of degraded Posidonia seagrass meadows.
Also present at the event were the Delegate for the Government in the Balearic Islands, María Salom; the Colonel-in-Chief of the Port de Pollensa military airfield, Miguel Ángel Falla, and the Mayor of Pollensa, Miquel Àngel March. After the signing of the agreement, the details of the project were presented and those present were able to see a recreation of how the planting of the Posidonia will be carried out.
The Red Eléctrica Marine Forest
The project encompasses the restoration of two hectares of degraded Posidonia seagrass meadows in Punta l'Avançada, in the Bay of Pollensa, through the implementation of the methodology used for the collection, cultivation and planting of Posidonia in the R&D+i project recently undertaken by Red Eléctrica and the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA) in the Bay of Santa Ponsa in Majorca and the Bay of Talamanca in Ibiza, and which was recently granted the ‘Good Practice of the Year’ award by the Renewables Grid Initiative (RGI).
IMEDEA will collaborate in the scientific management of the Red Eléctrica Marine Forest and the project will have an initial duration of four years. The Ministry of Defence will also collaborate on the project with the loaning of part of the facilities located at the Port de Pollensa airfield for the cultivation of Posidonia seeds and fragments.
The Bay of Pollensa was chosen as the ideal location to carry out this initiative due to the existence of a degraded seagrass meadow area suitable for restoration, and also because of the quality of the water and good environmental conditions.
The project contemplates the planting in quadrants of 12,800 seedlings obtained through the germination of seeds and cultivation of plant sections collected as a resulting of natural fragmentation. Each quadrant will be marked off for it subsequent identification, analysis and monitoring.
Once planted the following will be evaluated, on the one hand, the survival and growth rate of the transplanted Posidonia seagrass and, on the other, the recovery of the ecosystem in general, the biodiversity associated with the restored Posidonia seagrass meadow.
The Red Eléctrica Marine Forest will also be a living laboratory open to the scientific community where the CO2 emissions captured by the new seagrass meadow will also be evaluated, which will allow the efficiency of the restoration to be measured in terms of climate change.
The entire project will be supplemented with an environmental education programme that includes classroom training, field visits and educational materials to help raise awareness of the importance of marine ecosystem conservation.
With this initiative Red Eléctrica de España, through its Environmental Policy and its commitments to Biodiversity and Climate Change, showcases its commitment to sustainable development and the conservation of biological diversity. Red Eléctrica's commitment to sustainability aims to contribute to economic, social and environmental development, as well as to act as a gateway for the promotion of social progress and wellbeing in those areas where the Company’s facilities are located. This has lead the Dow Jones Sustainability Index to recognize the Company as a world leader in the Electric Utilities sector and has also enable it to reach the leading position in the Utilities supersector, which encompasses the electricity, gas and water sectors.
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