The Active Tourism Association of Lanzarote has wanted to make public its "concern" about the deterioration that the natural spaces of the island are suffering, due to the people who enter protected areas without any control and ignoring the prohibitions.
From the association, integrated in the Tourist Federation of Lanzarote, they affirm that the professionals of the sector "have been seeing and suffering these practices daily" for years, but now they wanted to "make public their discomfort", as a result of all the news that have been published lately. And they warn that the scenes of young people in areas of prohibited access in the Volcán de La Corona and in the mountain of El Golfo, or climbing a lava bomb to take photographs, are "only a small example of what is happening".
“We do not want the sector to be harmed by these actions. "We have been the ones who for many years have been doing the work of information and awareness and we have prevented many things from happening”, stressed the president of the association, José Luis Rubio.
In his opinion, one of the problems is the "shortage of personnel" that the administration has to monitor these spaces. “Given this lack of resources, what has been done for a long time is to apply increasingly restrictive policies, which have not affected those people who freely access natural spaces, but the qualified professionals who develop our activities there”, he warned.
The association emphasizes that the current government group of the Cabildo seems to have "a different sensitivity" and that "communication is much more fluid", but hopes that this will really materialize in "changes".
Among other things, it demands that a "regulation be drafted to regulate access and use of natural spaces." “The policies that have been carried out for years have not served to prevent the deterioration of the island's environment. There is a failure in these policies and it has to be approached in a different way”, he claims.
“The policies that have been carried out for years have not served to prevent the deterioration of the island's environment"
“It is not only a matter of prohibition and putting up signs, which is practically non-existent, but of awareness and education. To bring people closer to natural spaces in an orderly and regulated manner, by the hand of professionals in the sector who know the environment and who know what they are talking about”, defends the president of the association, who recalls that to dedicate oneself to this activity, it is mandatory to have a "qualification and an authorization from the Government of the Canary Islands".
It also demands that the "value" of these professionals be recognized, who in some cases have "more than 20 years" of experience in the sector. “There are biologists, geologists, volcanologists, botanists, mountain guides, with a lot of training, with languages, with many hours of direct observation of the terrain and with a level of environmental awareness higher than average”, he highlights.
For this reason, the president of the Active Tourism Association has offered his help to the administration in whatever is necessary. “We are professionals who are out there every day and we stop and avoid many things that could have been more serious. We have been safeguards of the natural spaces of Lanzarote and we will continue to be so, because we have an ethical commitment to the island”, he concludes.
