Ecologistas en Acción has once again denounced the "overcrowding" suffered by the Famara Natural Reserve and has questioned "the lack of solutions by the Teguise City Council, the Lanzarote Cabildo, the Canary Islands Government and the General Directorate of Coasts and Sea". For this reason, the association has made public several proposals to preserve this protected area.
On the one hand, Ecologistas en Acción asks to regulate access to the beach road "with exclusive use for the neighborhood during daytime hours", and to establish sanctions for non-compliance. In addition, it calls for delimiting access to the beach by means of paths, "avoiding trampling on the dunes and their vegetation"; as well as the construction of a parking lot for cars and caravans in the village, away from the coastal area.
The association also wants to install "panels integrated into the landscape, where information is provided on the presence of this natural space to generate awareness and a change in the attitude of the people who visit us and approach Famara".
Finally, it requests the construction of an information booth "with minimum services, which promotes and disseminates information about the protected species and the natural attractions of the reserve", with "activities, routes and areas of biological interest in the area", which "apart from generating jobs, attracts an aware tourism and provides minimum services with public toilets".
"Negligence" and "lack of regulation"
In a statement, the association recalls that it has already made "numerous calls to denounce and condemn this negligence, due to lack of regulation and surveillance in the natural reserve", and regrets "the lack of action by the competent authorities to establish practical solutions".
In this regard, it stresses that "with the arrival of the Christmas holidays and sunny weather, it has been possible to observe again the pressure and influx of visitors in the natural area of the Famara coastline and what this implies".
Ecologistas en Acción Lanzarote recalls that it presented allegations to the Plan de Ordenación de los Recursos Naturales del Archipiélago Chinijo (PORN), where plans of action to protect the natural reserve were listed. "In Famara there are 1,131 people registered, but this population increases significantly in peak occupancy, making the balance unsustainable and generating an oversized load pressure in this natural space, which leads to discontent of the local population due to the reduced public space, increased pollutants, degradation of services and the proliferation of badly parked vehicles. All this turns the Famara coastline into a red spot of overtourism in Lanzarote", they denounce.
"The natural environment of Famara, in addition to having an unparalleled aesthetic value of the landscape, is included within the Natural Park of the Chinijo Archipelago for being a unique, relevant and singular ecosystem, due to its large number of protected species, mainly birds and other fragile plant species. The mobile dunes have gradually disappeared, decreasing the contribution of sand indispensable for El Jable. In other words, El Jable and Famara are directly interconnected in their geological, ecological and climatic cycles", they warn.
The association argues that it defends "a sustainable tourism that respects the environment and contributes to the conservation of cultural and environmental heritage", but for this it understands that "a community and collaborative project is necessary where the interested parties, both public and private, carry out a sustainable management of the space, where a commitment by the City Council of Teguise and the Cabildo of Lanzarote is indispensable to preserve and conserve this space as a natural heritage".
