Last Saturday, April 20, more than 200,000 people took to the streets of the Canary Islands, according to figures given by the organizers, to demand an end to mass tourism in the Archipelago, the redistribution of wealth generated in the sector, and the preservation of the islands' natural spaces.
Of the demands made, the Government of the Canary Islands was left with the possible implementation of a tourist tax, in the form of an eco-tax, with which to charge travelers between one and four euros for each night spent in tourist accommodation. The money raised would go to environmental protection and preservation of natural spaces. However, this Wednesday the Governing Group, made up mostly of the Canarian Coalition and the Popular Party, rejected the measure.
"An eco-tax is the lesser of two evils, what we also want is a tourism moratorium, that no more hotels are built, that the number of places is not increased even more, and a moratorium also on vacation homes," begins Adrián Flores, environmentalist, specialized in Terrestrial Biodiversity and Insular Conservation, in an interview with La Voz de Lanzarote.
"This did not end on April 20," says Flores. "Hopefully it will and the course will change, but it doesn't look like it, the groups will not be still until things are done as they should be done. We do not want to prohibit tourism, we want it to be regulated and done in a sustainable way and, above all, respecting the people who live here," he begins.
The objective of these citizen mobilizations has not only been a better distribution of the wealth generated by the tourism sector in the islands, but also "that there be a gesture, at least, that indicates that they really want to rethink things and study how to change the model," adds Flores. This environmentalist is one of the visible faces on social networks of the April 20 movement in the Canary Islands and a scientific disseminator of biodiversity in the islands.
On the one hand, one of the key points in the demands that the Archipelago is experiencing is housing. While he explains the importance of "putting a stop" to the increase in apartments and houses that are used for vacation rentals, Adrián Flores also emphasizes that it is necessary to "get involved" in the purchase of housing by foreigners who are looking for "a second residence" in the islands, as well as stopping real estate speculation.
The environmentalist invites us to rethink a solution for housing that tackles the more than 200,000 empty properties in the Archipelago and that prevents vacation homes from being exploited by a single company.
"The solution is not to build more, because prices will remain the same, the problem will be the same. Measures must be taken to avoid speculation and to prevent large companies and large investors from taking over a large part of the Canarian market."
The preservation of natural spaces
On the other hand, already in the environmental area, he explains that "in the case of implementing a tourist tax, it should be an eco-tax." Adrián Flores also highlights the need to offer "more surveillance in natural spaces" and to study the carrying capacity of each of them, as well as limit access and allocate "more funding for conservation."
Another of the initiatives of the regional Executive, according to the statements of the Canarian Minister of Tourism, Jessica de León, in Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero is "export the Lanzarote model to other islands." Or what is the same, charge for entering some natural spaces.
Adrián Flores defends that "we must take into account that the resident pays taxes and in the end we are already financing in some way those items that go to the conservation or restoration" of natural spaces. However, he opens the door to the fact that if the money collected only from travelers is insufficient, the door should be opened for residents to pay "even if it is a small amount."
As an example, he explains that the Teide National Park (Tenerife) is visited by four million tourists a year, "if each tourist paid one euro, that would be four million euros that could be used for surveillance, so as not to have five environmental agents for 190 hectares."
In this sense, Flores emphasizes that it is crucial to determine "the carrying capacity" of each natural space, since "conservation does not understand differences between tourists and resident population. There is a limit, it doesn't matter if there are 40 tourists or 40 residents, the impact is the same and this is the limit."
But he warns that measures must be established so that it does not happen as "many times, in which the reservations on a page for a natural space, which is also a tourist attraction, end up being taken by tour operators, who take over a lot of places." Thus, he advocates that quotas be created for tourists and others for residents, so that the local population "is not deprived because active tourism companies monopolize that reservation."
