The environmental groups that united in Tenerife six months ago to work together against the "excesses" social and environmental that occur in the islands and that led to the demonstrations of April 20, ask to approve a hotel and vacation moratorium "total and real".
These groups point out that last Saturday "about 200,000 people among all the calls left the current Government of the Canary Islands and its predecessors naked", who, with their "destructive" policies have taken the territory and the Canarian population to the limit, which has taken to the streets seeking a real change of model.
They say that, "to begin with", if the Government of the Canary Islands really intended to change the tourism model, it should paralyze, "immediately", the works of the tourist complexes of Cuna del Alma and La Tejita.
They assure that these two projects have several aspects that do not comply with the law, and add that the one of Cuna del Alma "fails to comply with the environmental assessment regulations, with protected species and archaeological sites within the perimeter of the work".
In the case of La Tejita, they assert that there is no report on the evacuation of wastewater and the strip of public maritime-terrestrial domain is being destroyed.
They accuse the Government of the Canary Islands of "maneuvering" to not stop the projects
These eighteen environmental associations point out that the Government of the Canary Islands has the powers and legal arguments to stop the works, even if it says otherwise, and accuse it of "maneuvering" to facilitate the resumption of the same.
As an example of this action, they cite the appointment of Jorge Sierra Riestra as Deputy Minister of Legal Services, and add that one of the first actions of this jurist was the issuance of reports that dismantle the protection of the sad viper, "paving the way for the resumption of work in El Puertito de Adeje".
The presence of the sad viper, under a special protection regime in the Canary Islands Catalog of Protected Species, was the reason why the works of the macroproject were paralyzed, they recall.
However, this same Wednesday the parties that form the Government (CC and PP) and the two parties that support it (AHI and ASG) voted against a motion by NC-BC with seven measures to control tourism growth, which included the moratorium, the ecotax or limit the sale of homes to foreigners.
Third, they say that the draft law to regulate the growth of vacation homes is proposed from parameters that "not only will not be able to solve the current problems, but will make them chronic".
Opposed to the specificities of vacation homes for the green islands
They indicate that the draft Law on Sustainable Management of Tourist Use of Homes, presented by the Government of the Canary Islands at the beginning of this month of April, aims to combat the shortage of rental housing for the local population, as well as control the escalation of prices resulting from the touristification and gentrification of cities, setting limits of 10% and 20% on the green islands.
This, they argue, implies a margin of growth of more than double the current number of vacation homes, and therefore they ask that if with the current 4% of vacation homes the situation is "critical" for the Canarian population, "what situation will we be in if we grow to 10% or 20%?".
They also state that this proposal allows converting entire buildings, located on residential land, into hotels, forcing municipalities to change their planning to do so.
On the other hand, they continue, no more inspection and control means are foreseen, so violating the law "will be as easy as until now. For these reasons, they are already working on the allegations to be presented to this draft law, so that the rule is a real remedy to the growing problem of access to housing and has a palpable and positive impact on the Canarian population".
