The Department of Landscape and Food Sovereignty of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, led by Samuel Martín, presented this Thursday a new Management Plan for the Natural Park of Los Volcanes. Specifically, it has announced what the future will be that the island institution is planning for the natural spaces of the El Cuervo Volcano and Caldera Blanca, affected by overcrowding and tourism for years.
In recent months, there have been several criticisms on social networks that have revealed problems of overcrowding in both spaces. In addition, tourists have been seen entering a path only open to pedestrians by car, a wedding in the El Cuervo volcano or how visitors climb a volcanic bomb to take photos in Caldera Blanca.
These behaviors generate different impacts on the capacity of ecological reception. In the presentation that the Cabildo of Lanzarote has carried out this Thursday, it highlights the damage to the soil and the morphology of the place by eroding the roads, leaving the marked path or transiting along the edges, widening the terrain. In addition, visitors often plunder the geological material, taking away stones and other materials from the natural spaces.
The damage to the environment also involves the alteration of the flora, damage to the vegetation or the presence of invasive species. In addition, they generate annoyances and aggressions to the fauna of the place and throw garbage that remains in the area or around the cars (cigarette butts and papers).
To tackle this situation, the Cabildo proposes establishing surveillance and access control, to prevent parking lots from overflowing and parking outside the authorized areas. This control will take place between 08:00 in the morning and 19:00 in the afternoon both in the El Cuervo volcano and in Caldera Blanca.
In addition, it also foresees the presence of a maintenance manager and an environmental educator for the two spaces, as well as the development of an application for reservations, content, regulations and information. In that sense, they report the creation of an information office at the beginning of the path.
Thus, the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, has added that "regulations in hand, we will not hesitate to sanction irresponsible behaviors such as those that we have unfortunately seen lately in protected areas of the island."
Among the measures presented by the Cabildo of Lanzarote, it is expected that these natural spaces will finally begin to be visited through shuttle buses. This action plan will end with the relocation of the parking lots in the Mancha Blanca area, in the municipality of Tinajo. This initiative will cost 1.6 million euros that will be subsidized with European funds.
For his part, the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, added that "this measure, which we will extend to other sensitive areas of the Island, will involve an investment of 475,000 euros per year and the hiring of 12 unemployed people, and is added to other sustainable actions undertaken by the Cabildo to preserve the environmental wealth of Lanzarote and La Graciosa."
Betancort also added that "the main objectives that we have set ourselves from the Cabildo so that Lanzarote is sustainable over time are to order the territory, control urban growth and determine the carrying capacity."
For his part, the Minister of the Environment, Samuel Martín, alluded to the study carried out during the design of the Plan to know the number of visitors that both enclaves currently have, "which, although it establishes that the average daily number of hikers does not exceed the carrying capacity in Caldera Blanca, it does occur in Volcán del Cuervo in the time slot from 9 in the morning to noon, which makes it necessary to limit it."
In addition, a joint project is already being carried out in the area with the Government of the Canary Islands for the restoration of the volcanic cones charged to the European funds Next Generation.
