The SEPRONA detachment of Timanfaya, Lanzarote, has proceeded to investigate two companies and six people for a crime against natural resources and the environment. In addition, a complaint was also filed against 23 people and 13 companies who were caught by the Civil Guard extracting aggregates.
In the first police actions, the facts were brought to the attention of the Natural Agency for the Protection of the Rural Environment of the Canary Islands by the Civil Guard, in order to request information on the authorizations for the extraction of aggregates from these three people.
These extractions, repetitive throughout 2020 and 2021, were awaiting a response on the classification of the land, finally being a rustic land of landscape protection and it is concluded that extractive activities are expressly prohibited, not being compatible with the current planning.
One of the plots where the jable was extracted is located within the Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA) ES0000040 Northern Islets and Famara, belonging to the NATURA 2000 Network, a European protection figure, habitat of the Canary Islands hubara (Chlamydotis undulata), a bird that is in danger of extinction.
According to the penal code, these acts constitute a crime when, contravening the laws or other provisions of a general nature protecting the environment, directly or indirectly carries out extractions or excavations in the soil, by themselves or jointly with others, causes or may cause substantial damage to the quality of the air, soil or water, or to animals or plants.
If the previous conducts, by themselves or jointly with others, could seriously harm the balance of natural systems, a prison sentence of two to five years, a fine of eight to twenty-four months and special disqualification for profession or trade for a time of one to three years will be imposed.
In addition, there is the circumstance that some of the investigated have also been administratively denounced for carrying out extractions of aggregates without the mandatory authorizations in mining land.
