The LEP-Sí Podemos Group in the Cabildo of Lanzarote requests that a limited number of daily visitors be implemented to the Natural Park of the Chinijo Archipelago. This is one of the main allegations that the purple party has presented within the period of public exposure of the Plan for the Management of Natural Resources (PORN) of this space, which is processed by the Vice-Ministry of Territorial Planning and Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands.
Regarding the carrying capacity, Podemos also proposes "limiting human activity in the areas of maximum protection", so that only "purely educational and research activities" are allowed, as well as the closure of the tracks in the areas of maximum protection, the delimitation of a parking space in Caleta de Famara that prevents the access of vehicles beyond the urbanization of Island Homes and the control of all types of boats that, "daily and with full impunity from the competent authorities, leave through the beach of the town of Famara to navigate, fish, or plunder in the marine reserve". It is also proposed to preserve the intertidal zone from new constructions, land occupations or invasive activities.
Podemos believes that since the Law of Natural Spaces of the Canary Islands of 1987 was approved, which declared the Chinijo Archipelago as a Natural Park, the normative action of the Government of the Canary Islands has been "erratic and lacking the necessary conservative and protective vision of the natural wealth of this space". However, it also adds that it "recognizes the effort and interest shown by the current Government", of which the party is a part, "to try to order and make prevail the protection of nature against mere speculation".
Allegations in five sections
The allegations of the purple party are divided into five sections: the need to update the data to establish minimum criteria for the management of natural resources; the limitation, control and sanction of inappropriate human activity; overexploitation and carrying capacity; heritage and, finally, the specific measures to be carried out.
Podemos believes that there is no updated data on the real situation of the natural resources that need to be managed and that there is also not "the slightest reliable knowledge of the homes and apartments exploited as tourist accommodation". It asks that studies be carried out on the ground of the life cycles of the species and requests the Ministry to invest more in science and knowledge, deriving from a large part of the funds that the European Union is going to transfer to the island.
For Podemos, "conservation has failed and it is time to end an unlimited conception of natural resources, of tourist monoculture and of extractive use of the landscape". To recover the space, it considers that it is necessary to "restrict and limit, while monitoring, sanctioning and putting a stop to the continued abuse in the Natural Park".
"A PORN with aspiration of validity must set clear limits to the carrying capacity, restrict the quotas of visits, the quotas of passage in the boat routes, the quotas of resident people, the quotas of tourist accommodation and the tourist and recreational uses, because they are incompatible with the preservation and recovery of natural resources and with survival", Podemos points out in its allegations.
PORN "not very rigorous in its paleontological content"
"Regarding heritage, the paleontological content of the PORN draft lacks the necessary rigor to guarantee that at least the most interesting soils in the area are protected", adds the party. In the case of the Tiagua site, it proposes its declaration as a Natural Monument and requests that other elements "of undoubted value, such as the civil water infrastructure or the machine gun nests that run through the coastal area, the wells, vessels, maretas, cisterns, alcogidas, the communal corrals, the private ones, the gambuesas, the rock stations or the archaeological records known and not incorporated into any record" be protected. In addition, it considers that the Salinas del Río "should be subject to specific treatment, and the necessary measures should be adopted for their preservation due to the undoubted historical and patrimonial value they possess".
Other measures "to take into account are those to preserve El Jable, assuming the demands of Ecologists in Action and asking that the area be declared a Rural Park", he points out. It also demands "the elimination of polluting discharges into the ocean, that the network of rainwater and wastewater in La Graciosa be a priority objective and the promotion of food sovereignty and energy self-sufficiency".
The councilor of Podemos in the Cabildo, Myriam Barrios, considers that it is urgent to provide protection to one of the most valuable natural spaces in the Canary Islands. "Sustainability has failed and we owe ourselves to the recovery of nature as the only means to guarantee survival and because the carrying capacity of the space has been exceeded for decades", she says.
