"The Canary Islands are a region that is dying of success due to tourism. It has a number of tourists far beyond its possibilities," explains predoctoral researcher Alberto Ucero from the Spanish National Research Council in an interview with La Voz.
The tourism model of Canarian development has been the subject of criticism for decades. The environmentalist struggle in Lanzarote, led by the artist César Manrique, led to the approval at the beginning of the century of a tourism moratorium to curb excessive growth on the island and in the rest of the Canary Islands. Now, two decades later, the current situation is bringing the population of the eight islands to the streets to demand an end to mass tourism.
"The problem with the tourism model is that it has no limits, it is impossible that with the number of tourists who visit us each year, the conservation of natural spaces and the areas where protected species live, some of them threatened, can be respected," highlights the predoctoral researcher.
Therefore, "directly any activity carried out by both tourists and locals will create an impact on ecosystems and biodiversity in every sense, from direct disturbances to fauna, pollution due to resource consumption, wastewater discharges into the sea without prior treatment, as occurs with some outfalls, the production of a large amount of waste, as well as the use without regulation or surveillance of natural areas by a significant number of tourists," Ucero continues.
In addition, the current model seeks "the highest short-term economic return, especially for tourism and construction entrepreneurs, and that is what is causing the fauna and flora, even the landscape, to be affected by the excess of constructions, waste discharges, activities that degrade ecosystems, which affects the quality of life of residents," as well as "the experience that the tourist takes away."
This unlimited arrival of travelers has forced the Cabildo of Lanzarote to make the decision to control the entry of visitors to the El Cuervo Volcano and Caldera Blanca, also leaving the door open to continue with the control in other spaces to prevent further environmental impacts.
In addition, it has put on the table the need to preserve natural environments, such as beaches, volcanoes, or protected spaces. "The tourist is not looking for something that can be found in other parts of the world, but a unique experience that is provided by the landscapes of the Canary Islands and the biodiversity that is part of them," defends the CSIC researcher.
Regarding how to tackle this overload, the scientist explains that "we should think about changing that tourism and economic model, providing higher quality tourism, putting limits on the number of tourists through a tourism moratorium," and also, "implementing taxes that already exist in other Autonomous Communities of Spain and in other parts of the world." In this line, he places the possibility of establishing a tourist tax that reverts to the improvement of natural spaces and measures to protect the environment.
In this line, he indicates that the Canary Islands have "a higher load of tourists than their surface can support, which is very small." The Spanish Archipelago, with a third of the surface area of Hawaii (7,492 square kilometers) and almost double its population (2.2 million inhabitants), received 16 million foreign tourists last year, and the US islands 9.3 million, 42.9% less.
The Canary Islands have more tourists than entire countries, as is the case of Costa Rica, which with 51,179 square kilometers received 2.4 million tourists by air last year. In this sense, Ucero adds that "countries like Brazil also received fewer tourists than the Canary Islands, reaching six million last year."
The consequences of climate change
In addition to tourist pressure, there are the consequences of climate change on the islands. "The forecasts made by research groups specializing in climate change are that any of the extreme phenomena, such as rising sea levels, winds, waves, droughts, etc. are related to climate change, the result of activities carried out by humans," the researcher highlights.
All these phenomena will make the islands, more sensitive to the effects of climate change than continental territories, increasingly uninhabitable.
Climate change is mainly caused by greenhouse gases, specifically, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane (mainly from the livestock industry), and ozone.
"In the last decade, they have been increasing very alarmingly, causing global warming, which is reflected in an input of energy to the Earth, coming from pollution that, at some point, is released in the form of waves, a sudden rise in sea level, high-intensity winds, etc.," he explains.
"If Asia, India, and the United States continue with the level of pollution they currently have, the measures taken locally may not be enough to stop the rise in sea level due to the melting of the poles. The rise in sea level in the Canary Islands would affect 4% of homes." Thus, he explains that the only thing that can be done is "warn people who live on the coastline at risk of flooding that, according to sea level rise models, before the year 2050 their houses will be flooded by the sea and look for a solution."
In addition, he indicates that "there is no barrier that will stop it." In this way, he explains that what should be done is "look for a housing alternative for the people who will be affected. Once it is verified that the rise in sea level together with extreme phenomena is beginning to affect certain urbanized areas, the fact that these homes were demolished before the sea level rises even more would favor that the progressive rise in sea level does not have catastrophic consequences."
"Obviously, any owner would be against [the demolition] until the sea level reaches their house, but when it is already common for their property to be flooded, it will probably be impossible to live in those houses," Ucero explains.
Finally, climate change affects species in relation to the availability of food, since "if there is no rainfall, there is no vegetation, and if there is no vegetation, there are no arthropods. Therefore, there would be no vegetation or insects for vertebrates to feed on. This is something that has already been proven to be affecting some of the species, decreasing annual productivity. If each year there are fewer offspring and there is no replacement of the adults that die, these species will be on the road to extinction, even more so considering the large number of endemic species in the Canary Islands."
