Five organizations have requested that the Government of the Canary Islands adapt the calendar of the Rally Isla de Los Volcanes and the extension of the hunting season to avoid affecting the Canarian houbara bustard and the Saharan courser, two protected species whose conservation, they recall, constitutes a legal obligation for public administrations.
The groups warn that the dates planned for the celebration of the rally and the start of hunting activity coincide with one of the most sensitive phases of the biological cycle of both species, as they are still in their reproductive period.
The request is based on recent studies by the National Museum of Natural Sciences (CSIC), which conclude that the reproduction of the Canarian houbara bustard extends throughout much of the summer. Furthermore, the organizations point out that field observations have recently confirmed the presence of very young Saharan courser chicks.
In their opinion, this data shows that both species continue to breed when the Rally Isla de Los Volcanes and the start of hunting activity are scheduled. Likewise, they maintain that extending the hunting ban until the end of November increases the probability that rains will coincide with the courtship period of the Canarian houbara.
The signatory entities recall that the Directorate General of the Natural Environment has technical reports and official cartography that identify the main breeding areas of these species, so they consider that there is no longer room to claim ignorance about the risks that certain activities can generate in these particularly sensitive areas.
In the document sent to the regional Executive, the organizations invoke the precautionary principle, included in Spanish and European legislation, which obliges administrations to adopt preventive measures when there is a reasonable risk of causing serious or irreversible damage to biodiversity, even if uncertainties persist about the exact extent of these effects.
"When there is scientific evidence of the serious impact of certain activities on endangered species and habitats, the priority must be to avoid any avoidable disturbance. The conservation of biodiversity cannot be subordinated to the celebration of activities whose planning can be adapted without compromising their development," they maintain.
The five organizations insist that their request does not seek to prevent the celebration of the Rally Isla de Los Volcanes nor to question hunting activity, but rather to guarantee that both can be developed in a way compatible with the conservation of the Canary natural heritage. However, they warn that authorizing these activities during sensitive periods for the reproduction of endangered species, ignoring the available scientific information, would mean assuming a risk that they consider incompatible with the legal conservation obligations of public administrations.
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