After two months of dialogue with citizens and the main actors involved, the Department of Environment of the Cabildo of Lanzarote will conclude during the next days 25 and 26 of March "the participatory process that will mark a clear roadmap for Famara".
“Given the neglect to which citizens had been subjected, they are now being given the opportunity to actively participate in the management of spaces,” says the councilor responsible for the area, Elena Solís.
"Solís has been promoting dialogue and social participation through an initiative that started in January." “Given the need to find solutions to manage a space of high ecological value in which people with different needs and interests coexist,” adds the councilor.
Now, the Corporation points out that the last phase of the process "will have different participatory tables, 9 in the first session and 6 in the second, in which they will work both by sectors and collectively." In them, they explain that there will be representation "both of citizens with the local population, neighborhood associations, ecologists and caravaners, as well as the economic agents involved such as hotels, commerce, surf schools and lodging establishments." They also add that there will be "a table in which political representatives and technicians from the public institutions involved in the management of Famara will participate."
From the Cabildo they inform that the participatory process will be carried out by the MUSE Group (Urban mediation and sociology of space), and will be based on the EASW methodology (European Awarennes Scenarios Workshop), which was developed by the European Commission in the mid-90s and which is specified "in two work sessions."
The first session, according to the Cabildo, will be focused "on developing visions about what is the existing reality in Famara and what scenario is to be achieved", while the second will be used "to generate initiatives to achieve the desired scenario, which will be agreed upon in advance."
Combining the right to enjoy with conservation
With these meetings, promoted by the Department of Environment of the Cabildo and the Biosphere Reserve, from the Corporation they point out that they intend to "improve the management of uses and activities, as well as the effects derived from them in a fragile environment such as Famara".
“The dialogue process aims to identify realistic solutions that allow maintaining the identity of both Caleta de Famara and the urbanization of Los Noruegos,” says the Councilor for the Environment and Biosphere Reserve, Elena Solís, who states that the Cabildo has also commissioned "a diagnostic study of the impacts that exist in the protected natural space of Famara."
On the other hand, regarding the concerns that citizens and users have been pointing out in previous meetings of the participatory process, Solís explains that among them "are the state of the roads, the need to increase surveillance, the conservation of the dune system and the jable of Famara itself, the influx to the beach areas, the increase in prices of the lodging offer, etc."
In this regard, from the Cabildo they assure that one of the key elements addressed in the previous dialogue tables "had to do with the need for regulation." “Civil society has expressed its desire to advance along a path that allows combining the legitimate right to enjoy natural spaces with the need to conserve them,” indicates the councilor, who trusts that the involvement of citizens in decision-making will become the usual procedure of the Cabildo.