The Agency for the Protection of the Urban and Natural Environment (APMUN) has sealed off the El Chupadero mountain, located in La Geria. The closure of this mountain is due to the existence of eight files for the extraction of rofe that was being carried out in this place, as confirmed to La Voz de Lanzarote from the Ministry of Environment and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands.
According to these same sources, "the activity has been suspended" on this mountain. However, they did not want to specify who ordered the sealing of El Chupadero or who issued these files. They have only limited themselves to assuring that "there are eight files open for the extraction of picón" and, therefore, the mountain has been sealed off.
This mountain has been surrounded by controversy for years. The association El Guincho had denounced the supposedly illegal extraction of picón in this protected natural space of La Geria. At the time, this group even denounced to the media that "they were taking the sand from the hillside of the mountain".
This complaint cost one of the members of El Guincho, Bernabé García, a lawsuit from the owners of the farm. Thus, Lorenzo Viñoly and Carlos García sued Bernabé, who this Tuesday confirmed to La Voz that they are asking him for "50,000 euros for defamation".
A report from the Cabildo
While El Guincho highlighted the alleged illegalities carried out on this mountain, its owners claimed that they had the approval of both the Yaiza City Council and the Cabildo, indicating that they had a territorial qualification for "the improvement of an abandoned agricultural farm".
Thus, there is a report from the Cabildo of Lanzarote, signed by the then councilor Carlos Espino and by the head of the Environment Service, Luis Pascual, in which they respond to the request of these two owners, who requested "the modification of conditions of the Territorial Qualification granted for the reconversion of an agricultural farm on the Chupaderos Mountain".
This report, dated August 28, 2008, says that once "the inspection visit has been carried out by technical personnel of this service, it has been verified that the execution of the works to improve the conditions of the farm has been carried out in accordance with what was requested and the conditions included in the corresponding Territorial Qualification, maintaining the characteristics and peculiarities of the unique cultivation system of the Protected Landscape".
"A surplus of sand"
In this document, it is reported that "as a consequence of the restructuring, a surplus of sand has been produced" and it is warned that this "cannot be used on the farm itself".
In this sense, the Cabildo expressed its favorable opinion "to the extraction of this surplus material from the farm". Of course, under certain requirements. Thus, it established that "all of the material must be dedicated to agricultural activity and that the promoters of the action must present a list of farms including property data and quantities of sand, which will be transferred to the Environment Service of the Cabildo of Lanzarote".
However, the sealing ordered now by the APMUN could be due to the fact that the conditions established in that permit were not respected. The complaint filed at the time by El Guincho argued that not only was the picón left over from the works on that farm being used, but that rofe was being extracted for sale.
