Trucks and mechanical shovels extracting gravel are part of the usual image of a protected area located next to Muñique, in the municipality of Teguise, and the researcher Alberto Ucero wanted to denounce it in a video, broadcast through the Frente de Lanzarote platform.
“There is a serious deterioration of the protected space due to the exploitation without repairs, generating irreparable damage such as the destruction of geological strata or entire ecosystems through large earth movements and making holes several meters deep”, says Ucero, who emphasizes that “some of the companies have been reported through Seprona for extracting aggregates in this area, since they allegedly lack permits.”
In addition, he warns that “there are uneducated people who take advantage of these holes to deposit all kinds of waste, turning the area into an illegal dump”, as well as an “illegal circuit for 4x4 cars, motorcycles and quads.”
In the video, Ucero questions “the scarce or non-existent surveillance by the authorities dependent on public institutions and the great demand that there has been for this construction material on the island, causing in these years a total lack of control of the extractions, adding to the above the lack of an extraction project, which complicates the tasks and the cost of restoration that is rarely carried out.”
In this regard, he emphasizes that the Google Earth viewer “shows the evolution of the area from 1951 to the present, appreciating the modifications that this space has undergone.”
Bird protection area
Although authorizations have been granted in the area and there are pending requests for expansion, Alberto Ucero emphasizes that it is a Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA), protected by the Natura 2000 Network, the main instrument for nature conservation in the European Union. In addition, he adds that this area coincides, in turn, with a part of the habitat of community interest, with “mobile dunes”, with a place of sedimentological interest and with an area of jable crops.
“In this area there are several species of flora and fauna classified as Endangered or Vulnerable. Among the steppe birds included in Annex I of the Birds Directive, are the Canary hubara (Chlamydotis undulata fuertaventurae), the Saharan runner (Cursorius cursor), the common thick-knee (Burhinus oedicnemus insularum), the trumpeter bullfinch (Rhodopechys githaginea amantum) and the moorish partridge (Alectoris barbara koenigi)”, he highlights.
The video ends with a reflection addressed to political parties, asking for control measures “that prevent this ecological attack, which will be irreversible.” A call is also made to citizens to “raise awareness, fight to preserve the island's natural spaces and propose another development model that puts the environment first, a source of health, well-being, happiness and wealth.”
In addition, Ucero states that a group from the Higher Council for Scientific Research, of which he is a part as a predoctoral researcher, has contacted authorities and conservation associations “to collect all the relevant information that exists about this space and its state of conservation so that they can identify the actions to be taken from a legal, administrative and communication point of view, among others.” He has also written a letter addressed to the mayor of Teguise and the councilor for the Environment, the president of the Cabildo de Lanzarote and the Environment Area, as well as the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands and the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce.
