The Cabildo of Lanzarote will officially receive this Friday the updated draft and the Initial Strategic Document of the Special Plan for the Protected Landscape of La Geria. The aforementioned document was drafted by the public company Gesplan, which is attached to the Government of the Canary Islands. Thus, the highest island body has announced the convocation of representatives of the agricultural and wine sectors, as well as citizens residing in this protected natural space, to jointly analyze both documents.
The president of the first Island Corporation, Oswaldo Betancort, emphasizes that for the Cabildo it is "essential to strictly comply with the applicable legal framework" in the process of preparing the Plan, as well as to "incorporate into the final document all those issues that respond to the demands raised by these groups that are compatible with the protection and care that La Geria requires."
In this sense, the island councilor for Territorial Policy and Land Planning, Jesús Machín, recalls that "in order for the document that is definitively approved to be as consensual and participatory as possible," the Cabildo initiated a consultative process through its website last October to "know the opinion of citizens about the problems that the Plan must solve and the objectives it must meet, in addition to providing suggestions to it."
According to the councilor, "once the draft is officially received, we will submit to the plenary session a request to the Environmental Body of the Cabildo" -in the process of creation- "the preparation of the mandatory Strategic Environmental Study, a document that will also be submitted to public consultation and that will include the analyzes and assessments carried out by said Body in environmental matters to be incorporated into the Progress of the Special Plan, as an essential prior step for its initial approval."