Posidonia (Mediterranean tapeweed) is an underwater plant endemic to the Mediterranean Sea and grows nowhere else in the world. Declared World Heritage by UNESCO, it forms great prairies serving as a natural habitat for a great number and variety of species.  One posidonia plant located on around the island of Formentera is 8 kilometers wide and 100,000 years old, making it the largest and longest-living being in the world. 

Posidonia makes a huge contribution to environmental conservation and balance, comparable only to that of the Amazon as it serves as a significant CO2 sink. It accommodates life, oxygenates the water, prevents erosion of beaches and, what’s more, filters waterborne particles. Formentera’s very special crystal-clear turquoise water owes to that.

 The Consell Insular de Formentera (Formentera Island government) is fully aware of the inextricable link between the destiny of posidonia and tourism, making it important to develop and promote sustainable tourism that protects the island’s natural resources and to help preserve posidonia through awareness. It’s also vital to launch an action plan devoted exclusively to posidonia conservation. It was with these goals in mind that, in 2017, the Save Posidonia Project and Save Posidonia Project Forum were spawned, bringing together specialists, scientists, administration, business and politicians seeking new proposals and solutions to move in just that direction. 

 Our campaign pursues several strategic goals: maximum dissemination of the project, placing it in the top position among posidonia campaigns; educating about the importance of the plant’s conservation for ecosystems, its great variety of benefits and the threats it faces; solidly establishing a common goal, a sense of pride and belonging to a single conservation cause; and communicating the need to a sponsor square meters of posidonia.

It is no secret that Formentera is a paradise drawing thousands of visitors each year. But the fact that its beautiful beaches and clean clear waters and good ecological health owe to posidonia certainly is. The best way to keep this great secret is to reveal it to the world.

Strategically speaking, we found it as appropriate as it is meaningful to ask the people of Formentera to participate in the campaign. With the help of our collaborating photographer Laura Abad, we were able to locate highly esteemed figures in tourism, hospitality, fishing, scuba diving, and ordinary islanders to take part by lending their pictures to the campaign in support of posidonia conservation. We were thus fortunate enough to have Manu San Félix, a marine biologist and National Geographic explorer. All of these people’s participation lent a feeling of reality and spontaneity to the story and enhanced its concept as it is their voice sending the message and transforming it into social mobilization. Support of locals and visitors alike is requested in the way of sponsorship of square meters of posidonia. We use images of the plant itself to reveal the secret told by one person directly to another. We can see the leaves of its various shades of green as a resounding symbol, as a message that is broadcast, like the secret that is told. 

All of this was applied in graphic pieces in different formats with online and offline media plans. We did an outdoor campaign with backlit outdoor advertising, bus stop posters and banners dotted across the island both for the project itself and as a means of communication for the Save Posidonia Project Forum.