The eco-social collectives that drove the protests and citizen demands in defense of a change of model denounce that the Executive Action Plan of the Canary Strategy for Demographic Challenge and Territorial Cohesion presented by the Government of the Canary Islands constitutes "a new package of development and territory-predatory policies". In a press release issued this Wednesday, they insist that said plan "deepens the same false solutions that have been applied for decades and that have led the archipelago to its current situation of saturation, inequality, and territorial emergency".
In this regard, they highlight that "far from proposing a real change, such as the one proposed in the document created by society with more than 80 measures for the change of model," the official document "is configured as a roadmap intended to **expand infrastructure, streamline licenses, facilitate urban expansion, and reinforce an economic model** based on infinite growth."
It is for this reason that they assure that these lines of action, "in addition to increasing constructive pressure on a fragile and limited territory, will only lead to greater overcrowding, an increase in population associated with developmentism, greater demand for resources, and an accelerated loss of fertile soil and further deterioration of natural spaces".
The collectives denounce that the Government "presents the measures as modernizing or sustainable, but in reality, it is a direct continuation of the same policies that have caused the ecological and institutional collapse of the Canary Islands". "The document does not contain an explicit recognition of the territory's limits, nor a self-criticism of the extractivist tourism model, nor a real will to solve the problems of housing, mobility, infrastructure, or resource consumption. Everything is geared towards continuing to expand a system that has already exceeded the islands' carrying capacity," they continue.
The voice of the mobilized citizenry has also not been incorporated, despite more than 75 groups, through the participatory process Canarias Palante, delivering a document with more than 1200 proposals to the Government.
Environmental defense groups indicate that the "Executive Plan" ignores the main demands that the population has been making for decades: a tourism moratorium, an eco-tax, a ban on property purchases by non-residents, an effective halt to mega-projects, and real protection of rural land and the coastline".
The signatory organizations affirm that, if the 43 measures proposed by the Government are applied, "Canary Islands will be pushed into a scenario of greater inequality, greater pressure on the territory, and housing speculation". "As if that were not enough, the plan for Demographic Challenge and Territorial Cohesion does not include measures for health or education, which are seriously affected by the same problems," they add.
"Developmentalist Approach" Denounced
Faced with this "developmentalist and continuity approach," eco-social groups recall that "there is a document of real, democratic, and participatory change proposals, developed jointly with hundreds of people and groups from all islands and sectors": the *80-odd measures for a change of model*. This document starts from the **recognition of the archipelago's ecological limits** and proposes a structural transformation based on social justice, redistribution, energy decentralization, soil protection, tourism containment, and the strengthening of the primary sector, care, education, and healthcare.
The groups conclude that the Canary Islands "need political will to implement brave measures oriented towards the common good. Without halting development, without setting limits, and without changing course, the current situation can only worsen".