Can we have a regenerative and circular tourism? As a Mallorca resident, Daniel Wahl thinks it's possible

A fascinating lecture by the systems thinker and advocate of regenerative societies, Daniel Wahl - who also turns out to be a major networker/player in the scenes of Mallorca and the Balearics. The lecture above (embedded) addresses directly the coming redundancy of the “cheap and frequent flights” model that has made the islands rich - and how enlightened philanthropy, plus bioregional planning, holds out the possible of a much more sustainable lifestyle and economy for the area, after the decline of the standard tourism model.

In this interview with the website of one of the islands property magnates, Charles Marlow, Daniel Wahl lays out his thoughts:

At the end of 2019, I gave a keynote speech at a conference on circular tourism, speaking to the potential we have if we brought the main tourist players in the Balearics together and made them understand they have to change their business model because it’s entirely dependent on cheap flights.

They need to risk manage their portfolios on the islands by becoming partners in renewable energy cooperatives, local organic food cooperatives, building a renewable transport system and so on.

If we could make Mallorca and Ibiza the first islands to go combustion engine free, it would be huge. We already have the media attention . It could become a model for the world. But we need to work with a large industry that can finance or co-finance such audacious projects.

The real estate industry is a major problem to one extent because a huge amount of houses are empty for large parts of the year and Airbnb has caused rents to shoot up and become unaffordable for many locals. There are obscene levels of inequality in Mallorca… If you work as a bridge builder between camps that sometimes don’t like or dismiss each other, the danger is you get shot at from both sides. It’s one of the big problems here in Mallorca.

For example, we need the work of TIRME [an environmental and waste services company] but some activists see them as the devil — the evil people who burn our rubbish. But someone needs to deal with rubbish and, before the current system was put in place, the mountain of landfill grew every year.

Now we officially have zero landfill and recycling is rising rapidly. We’re so trained to look for the mistake and waste time ‘othering’ people, but we should just be getting on with it. It’s much easier to make a course correction when you’ve already started working together.

We’ve wasted a lot of time in political infighting when we are literally all in the same boat, well, on the same island!

Do you see change happening?

I see that many land and property owners on Mallorca and Ibiza are wanting to make a difference now. For example, Bruno Entrecanales at Son Moragues or Benjamin Miles at Son Amar want to demonstrate that change is possible. Ben Goldsmith helped set up both the Mallorca and Ibiza Preservation Funds.

A Dutch family that owns houses on Mallorca and Ibiza recently helped create Marilles Foundation, aimed at protecting the ocean around the Balearics. Save the Med has been doing amazing work, supported by foreigners like Stefan Hearst and locals such as the Fluxa family (Camper and Iberostar).

There’s huge potential to work with high net worth individuals who are buying property on Mallorca to help in the process of creating an island that’s a case study for regional regeneration. And it’s happening! There are plenty of amazing projects doing good work: Poc-a-poc, Circle Carbon, PermaMed, Artifex Balears, Ecotxeand many others.

What else is needed?

What’s missing is an independent place that does the research or coordinates what’s being done by already existing bodies. But, until we’ve sorted funding, this would be a labour of love where you bang your head against many walls and many closed doors, working with next to nothing. Resourcing the network weavers would be critically important.

Personally, I’m linking into the larger international initiatives that could support the regeneration of Mallorca through capacity building and possibly help in securing funding off island. To name some of my close collaborators on regeneration projects in many places: the Capital Institute and their Regenerative Communities Network, the Ecosystems Restoration Camp Foundation, the Commonland Foundation and Gaia Education.

What does the future look like to you?

For me, it’s about building partnerships between industry, local and regional government, the university and many of the grassroots players already doing the work. This could create enormous business opportunities for the regional economy and enable diversity beyond the current addiction to tourism.

That’s why I’ve opened up the regenerative tourism conversation again. Because the obvious people to fund making Mallorca part of the Regenerative Communities Network are the feudal families of the Balearics who’ve become billionaires thanks to the beauty of these islands. These are the people who say they’re proud Mallorcans but keep investing in Asia or the Caribbean.

I’m saying to them that the patriarchs of Meliá, Iberostar, Barcelo, Riu and the like have already exported a model of tourism to the world that’s not sustainable. Now they have an opportunity to build a healthier legacy by making Mallorca a model for regenerative tourism and transferring what we learn here to touristic regions around the world.

With more than 80% of the regional economy dependent on tourism, the only way to shift this island is to shift tourism. Tourism won’t be the same in 10 years’ time if it engages now. It’s a major transformational process but it’s worth it.

More here. Here’s another 2019 Bruges speech from Daniel on tourism as a catalyst for regional regeneration: