The LIFE AdaptCalaMillor project, in which IHCantabria participates, combines art and environment to raise awareness on climate change

LIFE AdaptCalaMillor is an initiative selected by the European Commission to be part of its Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change subprogram, which promotes the long-term adaptation to climate change of the beach system and the urban area of the bay of Cala Millor.

In this line, the project is committed to urban art as a tool to raise social awareness about the importance of Posidonia oceanica and its ecosystemic values.

Therefore, the “Posseidònia” mural is one of the initiatives planned to raise awareness on public roads, which aims to highlight the value of Posidonia oceanica, a marine plant endemic to the Mediterranean that plays a crucial role in the marine ecosystem.

Posidonia forms underwater meadows that provide multiple benefits: it favors sedimentation and retention of suspended particles, stabilizes sediments with its roots, attenuates waves, buries CO2 for centuries, provides habitat for numerous organisms, contributes to water purification and generates oxygen.

The opening of this mural was attended by the General Director of Circular Economy, Energy Transition and Climate Change of the Government of the Balearic Islands, Diego Viu, who said that “it is very important to carry out this kind of actions, which help us to communicate, make visible and raise awareness about the preservation of the environment and the fight against climate change in the Balearic Islands”. In his speech, Viu stressed that the work “seeks to convey the importance of Posidonia oceanica for the marine ecosystem”.

Importance of the LIFE AdaptCalaMillor project

LIFE AdaptCalaMillor is an initiative that aims to provide a local long-term climate change adaptation project in the urban beach of Cala Millor, which is located on the Levante coast of Mallorca, the largest of the Balearic Islands.
Specifically, it proposes a transformation of the beach system and the urban area with the aim of increasing the resilience of infrastructures, ecosystem services and socioeconomics to the expected impacts.

This initiative, scheduled for the period 2023-2027, focuses on new science-based methodologies, as well as participatory and governance schemes, to improve the understanding of physical processes on an urban beach and anticipate possible changes in its morphology due to global climate change scenarios.

IHCantabria participates in some tasks of the LIFE AdaptCalaMillor project and leads the work package 4 (WP4), whose main objective is to elaborate a catalog of potential adaptation measures for Cala Millor, taking into account its benefits and impacts.

The implementation of this project is supported by the European Commission, through the financial instrument LIFE, coordinated by the Ministry of Enterprise, Employment and Energy of the Government of the Balearic Islands, through the Directorate General of Circular Economy, Energy Transition and Climate Change.

It also has the participation of Landlab, SLP Landscape Laboratory, ICTS Socib, the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), the Conama Foundation, the Tourism Consortium of Son Servera and Sant Llorenç des Cardassar, the Institute of Environmental Hydraulics of the University of Cantabria (IHCantabria), the Hotel Association of the Bay of Cala Millor and the University of Cantabria.

Meaning of the mural “Posseidònia”.

It is a mural of unpublished design, made by the artist of Son Servera Sath (Sandro Thomàs), in the port of Cala Bona. In his words, urban art is “a great communicative tool to reach all kinds of public, without restrictions of age or social status, with the simple intention of bringing art closer to the people”.
In addition, it helps to generate social awareness by making current challenges or problems visible, “I think that urban art can transform a space, as well as the people who observe it,” adds Sath.

The work entitled “Posseidònia”, is a fusion of the words “posseir” and Posidonia” (from the Catalan “posseir” and “Posidonia”). This mural seeks to generate a sense of belonging to the project and to endure over time, transcending the temporal limits of the project to achieve a cultural effectiveness of the message.