The president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, announces that the Government of the Canary Islands has approved the expenditure for the execution of the construction project and the works for the environmental restoration on the margins of the LZ-3 road, Arrecife Ring Road, with an investment of 1.8 million euros, funded by the investment project “Development of Landscape Guidelines. BIOCRIT Project. Biosphere Reserve of Lanzarote”.
The action will definitively complete the ecological, aesthetic, and landscape integration of the Arrecife ring road, fulfilling the corrective measures established in the Environmental Impact Study and the Declaration of Ecological Impact linked to the duplication of this road infrastructure.
Oswaldo Betancort has stated that "this investment by the Government of the Canary Islands allows us to settle a historical debt with the landscape and with the city of Arrecife, culminating a strategic infrastructure with respect for the territory and the environmental values that define Lanzarote as a Biosphere Reserve."Betancort highlighted that "the environmental restoration of the LZ-3 will improve the image of the island's capital entrance and the landscape coherence of the peri-urban environment, in coordination with the Cabildo and the Arrecife City Council itself".
The project is based on the guidelines of the Critical Study of Island Landscape (BIOCRIT), which establishes specific criteria for improving road landscapes in peri-urban environments. Among the main actions planned are the creation of transition vegetation strips, the preferential use of native and endemic species with low water consumption, the visual improvement of slopes, junctions, and roundabouts, and the chromatic integration of materials with the surrounding landscape.
The Lanzarote Island Council's Landscape Councilor, Samuel Martín, has emphasized that "this project allows for the correction of previous approaches and progress towards environmental restoration consistent with the landscape, climate, and ecological values of Lanzarote, prioritizing native species and sustainable solutions".
Martín added that "the application of BIOCRIT criteria guarantees an intervention that is respectful of the environment, reduces the visual impact of the infrastructure, and improves the environmental and landscape conditions of one of the main access routes to the capital."
The contract for the development and execution of the project has been awarded by the Government of the Canary Islands to the public company Gestur Canarias, S.A., which will have a total execution period of 12 months, divided into four months for the drafting of the project and another eight months for the execution of the works.
From the Lanzarote Cabildo, the institutional coordination between the Government of the Canary Islands, the Cabildo, and the Arrecife City Council is positively valued as a fundamental tool for advancing actions that combine mobility, sustainability, and landscape protection, in coherence with the island's territorial model.