-You had a pretty intense morning last Wednesday, didn't you?
-Quite intense and very satisfactory.
-The Minister of Environment and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands, Domingo Berriel, was in Lanzarote, who met with the president and with you.
-Indeed, apart from a previous meeting we had with all the mayors and another later with the mayors affected by the Special Plan of La Geria.
-Which seems to be a 'rocambolesque story'.
-In principle, it seems that we have reached an agreement on how to implement it and we have reached the solution that seems most logical, which is even before taking it to public information that at least the work between the two administrations has been coordinated.
-What are those two administrations, Cabildo and Canarian Government or Cabildo and town halls?
-Sorry, I should have talked about three administrations. I was referring to islanders, but we are effectively talking about the City Council, the Cabildo and the Government of the Canary Islands because it does not seem very sensible when the public opinion itself observes how a planning instrument, made in this case by the Government, can have a significant volume of allegations from the Cabildo or some of the town halls. It does not seem appropriate that the administrations that have to collaborate side by side with that space do not even initially share the starting ideas. In that sense, we have agreed to carry out a prior concentration process between the administrations and from there pass it on to public display. And then pointing out something that seems fundamental and that we must demand that it be so, which is to manage that space, which we know how valuable and complicated it is, by a consortium figure in which all the administrations are represented to guarantee in some way that the regulations, that the regulation that is made on La Geria is not a simple ornamental instrument. That we all pull together and push in the direction in which we have committed ourselves.
-The affected municipalities would then be Yaiza, Tías, Tinajo and San Bartolomé.
-Effectively together with the Cabildo. But the affected municipalities would be these and we would be talking about all those administrations being represented in the consortium. It will cost each of those administrations a part of our budget to attend to La Geria as it deserves and with everyone involved, we are sure that in La Geria we will be able to guarantee its conservation and maintenance and that it continues to be an indispensable part of the landscape.
-This also protects this paradisiacal environment of Lanzarote from speculators.
-Also including that function but not only protecting against voracious predators but also collaborating with the authentic gardeners, because in La Geria more than farmers we have gardeners who make landscapes and that is fundamental.
-In any case, this protection plan should not only be limited to La Geria itself, but should be extended to the area of Tinajo, Tinguatón, etc.
-That was something I was talking about with one of the attending mayors who, to some extent, complained that La Geria was only a part...And I told him precisely for that reason, because on the one hand including an area of 'ante Geria' to call it somehow, we guarantee that the transition to the landscape of La Geria is smooth, we do not find things that affect the contemplation of La Geria or the value of La Geria. On the other hand, and to some extent, we are also qualifying that area by considering it in that way. It must be seen as an opportunity.
-A kind of pre-park.
-Effectively. The same figure almost almost as the pre-parks in the case of National Parks.
-So it was a satisfaction for everyone?
-In principle, everyone is happy because at least we are agreeing on the mechanisms that, I repeat, seem the most reasonable. We are not discovering gunpowder, what happens is that we did not have that healthy habit perhaps at other times of collaborating from the initial moment the different administrations to ensure that the planning instruments come out with the greatest possible support.
-What other issues were raised to the Minister of the Government of the Canary Islands?
-Well, we were also raising the Comprehensive Environmental Recovery Plan of the Island. We have the advantage that he has also been Minister of Territorial Policy in a Cabildo and knows what it is like to be on both sides of the barrier, not only in the Government but directly in the territory, in the Cabildo and well it has been very easy to agree on the diagnosis that at this time we need a shock cleaning, we need cleaning of the coastline, we urgently need to recover and seal the landfills and clandestine dumps that we still have swarming on the surface of the Island, we need the Quarry Recovery Plan and what we have agreed on is to start making a schedule to start allocating resources and something that has seemed very interesting to us, which is that he starts from the basis that it is not only his Ministry that is responsible. That, for example, the Ministry of Tourism has a lot to do with this maintenance of the landscape. The same Industry that has given licenses for certain types of extractions and others, should be involved in the recovery of quarries.
-It is clear that the powers of Industry should be transferred to the Cabildos, because from that Ministry licenses have been given from a very dangerous distance.
-No, we will always agree there, however much the COTMAC is responsible for protecting this type of procedures, of course we are always in favor of bringing this type of decisions closer to the island level. Moreover, as a theoretical discussion because for the moment as the law is, it cannot be raised in another way, we are among those who say that the regulations of natural spaces should be made from Lanzarote. At this time it is being done in the Government of the Canary Islands, well we will cooperate so that situations do not occur in which documents are strongly contested by the Cabildos but there is no doubt that the medium-term objective should be to place this type of powers directly on the Island, by the principle of subsidiarity. Here we have to get used to thinking that we have to culminate the principle of transfer, both from the State to the Autonomous Communities, Autonomous Communities to Cabildos, in the case of the islands and even from the Cabildos to the town halls.
-The Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, Manuel Fajardo, was also in the Cabildo. I don't know if he joined any of the meetings.
-Yes, he joined the one in La Geria. While there are others who are still thinking about how we can qualify the tourist offer of Lanzarote and they come up with solutions that they try in all the places where they have nothing to sell, we have La Geria, the network of Art, Culture and Tourism Centers, a magnificent coastline that must be valued with soft actions that do not compromise the conservation of that coastline, we have enough elements to have a powerful leisure and complementary offer with its own personality that allows us to differentiate ourselves from other types of destinations. In short, what I would highlight is that atmosphere of cooperation with the Government of the Canary Islands and from there we will have to put our batteries and demonstrate waist and ability to take advantage of that new scenario that opens.
-By the way, the mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, asked yesterday for a meeting between politicians and businessmen to try to solve the problems that have arisen in the South of the Island.
-I have to recognize because otherwise it would be unfair that the statements of the mayor of Yaiza have caused me an intense pleasure and a very important satisfaction, because you have to realize that finally after 10 years he has recognized that we have to sit down with the Cabildo to talk about territorial and tourism policy on this island, something that until a couple of days ago he radically denied in the defense that the City Council of Yaiza was totally sovereign to do and undo whatever he wanted. Therefore, we have to congratulate ourselves that he has recovered his sanity, that he has recognized that the Cabildo exists and from there, of course, we will sit down to talk, guaranteeing as a first and indispensable condition that the legality that we have all given ourselves is respected.
