Somos Lanzarote will propose in the plenary session of the Cabildo, as well as in the territorial policy commissions of the island institution, that an analysis be carried out to establish the tourist carrying capacity of protected enclaves such as the Chinijo Archipelago, including the island of La Graciosa, or the beaches of the natural space of Los Ajaches, known as "Playas de Papagayo".
They seek to put an end to the overexploitation and massification that has been observed in recent times and that "is inevitably leading to a process of deterioration not only environmental, but also of the tourist destination itself, jeopardizing its sustainability, both from the natural and social point of view".
Therefore, Somos Lanzarote will propose that both the Island Plan of Lanzarote and the Plans for Use and Management of the various protected areas -most of which are currently being processed- include an exhaustive analysis of the human carrying capacity of these spaces, or what is the same, that they define, after a rigorous analysis, from what limits the ecosystems and other indicators of environmental quality and well-being for the residents of the affected environments are put at risk, for their control by the competent administrations.
More quality, less massification
As explained by the spokesperson of the assembly formation in the Cabildo, Tomás López, "the richness and landscape and environmental fragility of Lanzarote, La Graciosa and the rest of the Chinijo Archipelago require intelligent planning, especially in the face of this eventual tourist rebound that we are experiencing, if we really want to protect our most valuable spaces and ensure their sustainability and future profitability".
Therefore, together with other challenges of territorial planning such as the definition of the hotel and extra-hotel carrying capacity or the effective regulation of vacation rentals, they consider it urgent to "approach the reality of the specific protected spaces that are suffering the effects of massification, such as the Island of La Graciosa or the beaches of southern Lanzarote, and to delimit, as it happens in so many places of similar environmental value, how much transient population fits without damaging the environment or the quality of life of the resident population".
For Somos Lanzarote it is necessary that the Cabildo commission the drafting teams of the different plans to carry out an exhaustive analysis and evaluation of this carrying capacity from an environmental, but also social and tourist perspective, so that its conclusions can then be debated and agreed upon with the rest of the social actors of the islands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
In the opinion of Somos Lanzarote, this is one of the indispensable measures for the island to resume "the path of planning and control of its environmental resources and the improvement of tourist quality, which is clearly incompatible with the massification and lack of control in which the island's tourism industry has been plunged".
