The summer season has barely begun when a tourist disembarking from a catamaran in La Graciosa begins, bag in hand, to collect shells on Playa de la Francesa.
The woman continued collecting dozens of elements that she was extracting from the beach, in front of the carefree gaze of other visitors and the workers who were preparing the activities for the tourists.
In most cases, what tourists steal from the beaches of Lanzarote and La Graciosa is lithic material, that is, stones, rofe or sand. Each year, more than a ton of natural elements are collected that visitors extract from the island's spaces.
The Minister of the Environment of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Samuel Martín, has indicated that most of the material that is intercepted is seized at the César Manrique Airport control. In that case, the people from whom the material is removed are not sanctioned because it cannot be proven that they have been extracted from protected areas. Except for exceptional cases, when they are intercepted at the moment of committing the infraction, which are sanctioned by the Environment of the Cabildo.
In these cases, people who are caught in fraganti are usually sanctioned for minor offenses (from 150 to 600 euros) and serious offenses (600 to 3,000 euros), with very serious ones being less frequent.
In these cases, the elements that are collected are taken to the Máguez Nursery, since they cannot be reintroduced into their natural environment, as it is unknown from where they were taken.
Along these lines, the head of the Environment Service and coordinator of the Geopark of Lanzarote and the Chinijo Archipelago, Reinero Brandon Fernandez, has highlighted that these elements are deposited in the forest nursery and are then used in public works of the Airport itself, such as, for example, the gardens around the terminal.
Lack of environmental agents
Lanzarote and the Chinijo Archipelago have only eight environmental agents who, in addition to preventing natural elements from being removed from the environment, are responsible for monitoring hunting or fishing on the island, as well as making sea crossings in the islets. In this way, "for everything we would have to, at least double the staff", adds Fernández.
"From the Ministry of the Environment everything that can be done is done, but it is completely under-equipped, both in terms of personnel and budgetary resources", highlights the coordinator of the Geopark. At this point he exemplifies that the expense that the Lanzarote Tourism Council makes in Fitur "is the annual budget of the Ministry of the Environment, when tourism depends precisely on the environment because tourists come to see the protected natural spaces and the landscape of Lanzarote".
Surveillance and control measures
Regarding increasing surveillance, Reinero Brandon indicates that "it would almost take a policeman on top of each tourist". In this sense, he highlighted the importance of awareness-raising efforts. "We have to do a good exhibition campaign, of environmental awareness at the entrance of tourists, which is what we are working on with Aena", he anticipates.
The Environment area of the Cabildo is working on an agreement to be able to explain in the two terminals of the César Manrique Airport the fragility of the environment and that they enter an island Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO Global Geopark. At the same time, in which they are warned that "extracting lithic materials can involve a significant sanction", adds the head of the Environment Service.
To work on this campaign, they have also contacted the Telesforo Foundation, which works in Tenerife, and which has done the project Pasa Sin huella, which the Cabilldo seeks to adapt to Lanzarote. In addition to giving talks in schools and hotels so that workers can pass it on to tourists.
