The Government of the Canary Islands has approved the Plan for the Management of Natural Resources of the Chinijo Archipelago and Famara at the request of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning.
The elaboration and approval of these documents corresponds to the autonomous communities in their respective areas of competence.
The lack of this document led to the annulment of the Master Plan for Use and Management of that natural space by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.
The Chinijo Archipelago Natural Park (L-2) is located in the northern sector of the island of Lanzarote, including the island of La Graciosa, the islets of Alegranza and Montaña Clara, the Roque del Infierno or del Oeste and the Roque del Este, as well as the marine area between the islets and the north coast of Lanzarote. Also included in the area of the Natural Park is the Integral Natural Reserve of Los Islotes (L-1).
The processing of the document has not been limited to the public information procedures established in the legislation, but has been the subject of several participation processes to guarantee its consensus with the citizens involved, given its social impact.
The Chinijo Archipelago Natural Park was managed through the corresponding Master Plan for Use and Management, approved by the Canary Islands Territorial Planning and Environment Commission (COTMAC) in 2006. Precisely, this document was annulled by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands due to the lack of the corresponding Natural Resources Management Plan, a ruling later ratified by the Supreme Court. This procedure complies with said order of the highest body of the judicial power in the autonomous community.
The approval of this Plan establishes a series of general criteria and rules so that its development, through the planning or management plans of the space, is compatible with the conservation of environmental values. The determinations established in the document are considered proportionate and adequate to the intended purpose and aim to ensure the conservation of the environment, in general, and the long-term survival of species and habitats, the maintenance of biodiversity and geodiversity, the quality of air, water and soil in particular.
However, given the particular characteristics that concur due to the overlapping of different figures and categories of protection and conservation areas, it has been considered appropriate to propose as the scope of the Natural Resources Management Plan (PORN) an area that incorporates all the land of the Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA) of the islets north of Lanzarote and Famara (ES0000040), which turns out to be larger than that which strictly corresponds to the Natural Park.
In this way, fragmenting this continuous area of protection is avoided, which overlaps, largely coinciding with the Chinijo Archipelago Natural Park, but which extends beyond its limits over the sandy terrains of the El Jable aeolian sedimentary system.