Casita Verde founder Chris Dews: "We want people in Ibiza who are intelligent, not just rich"

The ecologist and environmental campaginer, Chris Dews, is famous in Ibiza as the founder of Casita Verde near St Jose, which he started in 1993. Chris and teams of volunteers have transformed the place into a model for living with minimal environmental impact. He dreams of one day doing things on a much grander scale on a different site, and has his eye on the vacant land next to Cafe Mambo for a project he calls EcoLandia. As a young man, Chris spent many years in the merchant navy. He ended up in Ibiza quite randomly when he needed to get out of the UK at short notice and found the last flight left in his local trave agent was to the white isle. Chris is an original thinker. He certainly isn’t against partying on the island, but believes you should earn the right to do so after a hard day’s volunteering. Tourism doesn’t need to stop but should be totally redefined.

Om Podcasten

Welcome to Ibizology, a podcast exploring the culture, history and arts of the Balearic island of Ibiza. I’m Will Beacham, an Ibiza-based journalist and in each episode I interview an Ibizan who is contributing in some way to life on this wonderful island. Through their words I aim to bring to life different aspects of island living as they tell their unique stories. The Ibizan music you hear was recorded in July 1952 in the churchyard of the village of St Josep by the musicologist Alan Lomax. It is called “Bon amor jo et venc a veure” which translates from Catalan as “Good love, I come to see you.” It is part of a huge archive of folk music he recorded all over the world. The Ibizan segment of the archive can be heard at http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-ix.do?ix=recording&id=11950:89&idType=subregion&sortBy=abc The music, from the Alan Lomax Collection at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. Used courtesy of the Association for Cultural Equity. Painting of Ibiza's Dalt Vila by Vicent Calbert, courtesy of Bar Costa, Santa Gertrudis.