- Why does the scientific cabinet of the Biosphere Reserve Council consider that the special Territorial Plan should not include the complementary leisure offer?
- Basically for two things. On the one hand, because the Special Territorial Plan that is drafted, which is already on the Cabildo's table, is a document that could be immediately released for public display and processed. It is a document that is already three years behind schedule. In April 2003, when the Guidelines came into force, a period of three months was given to draft a document that is supposed to fix two or three things: the rate of growth, land reclassification, etc. On the other hand, because that complementary offer that is to be introduced, as far as we know, has not been analyzed, has not been the subject of an analysis and a diagnosis at the island level, but it would have to be studied now, unless we started to put improvised things into a land management instrument, in which case we would not be talking about a land management instrument, but a political decision, because for that you do not need a management instrument. So, the PTE should not include the complementary leisure offer for two reasons: because it would mean an obvious delay in the processing of the PTE that is already in place, and because determinations of this type cannot be improvised, since these are tourist facilities that are large consumers of land. It was even said in the roadmap made by the César Manrique Foundation that the land management in Lanzarote was a single management, but that it had to be broken down and produced through different instruments. Well, now we have one of those instruments, in that line of management, which is the PTE, and it is possible, no one denies it, that another management instrument is necessary, which in the same line develops the complementary leisure equipment establishments, which must be started to be studied now, because it has not been studied on the island yet, neither in the Island Plan, nor in Modification Number 1, nor in this PTE. Maybe it is the time to study it, but not to force it in, without a coherent island vision within a management instrument that is already made. That is the opinion of the scientific cabinet.
-What consequences can the inclusion of that complementary offer in the PTE have now?
-Delay a document that was necessary to have three years ago. And also, it would have to be evaluated, because it would be putting into a document that is thought out, coherent and rational, some contents that lack a previous analysis, and that is not serious within a management instrument.
-The president of the Cabildo says that it is necessary to seek consensus, and it seems that the issue is being politicized and some things are being taken out of context...
-Of course, and it is that we are not speaking from a political point of view, but from the point of view of the Biosphere Reserve. The concern expressed in writing by the scientific cabinet is for two reasons: given the possibility that the current model of tourism growth and land consumption continues to expand, which despite all the moratoriums and island plans, is still alive in Lanzarote, and on the other hand, the need to make a new call to the Lanzarote society to stop that model and rethink the future calmly. Those are the two messages that the cabinet wants to emphasize. We do not enter into political issues or what the final decision may be. Maybe in the end it is concluded that certain facilities are needed in Lanzarote, where exactly they should be placed, of what dimension, of what characteristics, or those facilities are not needed, or some are and others are not. We do not know until a territorial analysis is done. We are talking about land management, sustainability, Biosphere Reserve. We know that a conflict of political options has arisen, but they are political options based on different perspectives on land management on the island.
-Do you understand that now the Cabildo is concerned about the opinion of the mayors, after you gave them a slap on the wrist, and now those same mayors are saying that the complementary leisure offer should be included?
-Yes, I understand that the Cabildo is concerned about those opinions, because it should always be, since after all they are democratic representative administrations of the island, but one thing is that it is concerned and another thing is that the interests of the island should prevail or not over the interests of the different municipalities. Here we are facing an island problem. This type of decisions, from a strictly territorial point of view, we understand that they cannot be adopted at the municipal level, they must be adopted at the island level, but coherently, sensibly, rationally, not improvised, open a piggy bank so that each applicant asks for what they want and in the end a hodgepodge is made, a collage with what each of them asks for, and that is called a plan. That is not a plan.
-On the one hand, there is talk of the need to approve this PTE as soon as possible, and on the other hand, it is maintained that it is not so necessary to approve it now, because although we have been delayed two years and nine months, we can continue for three more months, and thus we could include the complementary offer. According to the scientific cabinet, does the non-immediate approval of the PTE pose any risk to the containment of growth, in terms of the declassification of beds?
-There are things that are not in the Island Plan and that are not in law 19.203, and that could be in the PTE. For example, the suspension or limitation simply of residential actions in consolidated urban land, in tourist areas, which is now one of the greatest dangers, the trend is not so much at the moment towards the development of tourist accommodation establishments, but towards the development of secondary homes, of the so-called villas, of residential tourism. That in principle law 19.203 and even to a certain extent the Island Plan, in its revision of 2000, does not offer a front or a forceful management in that sense, and the PTE could do so. In addition, the PTE could reclassify land, could also promote the policy of renovation of accommodation places, allowing transfers from one plot to another, which at the moment cannot be done. There are elements of both defense and impulse, of progress, that the PTE could have unlocked and can still unlock, and that are there in limbo. And on the other hand, I also have serious doubts that a serious and in-depth study of something as complex and as discussed as complementary equipment, can be resolved in three months. There are always people capable of performing miracles, but it must be taken into account, for example, that the Island Plan of Gran Canaria entrusts the study of complementary equipment to a Special Territorial Plan with an advance, with a definitive management instrument, two PTEs are being made at the moment on that island, one only for golf equipment, and another for another type of complementary equipment, and they have been being drafted for more than a year one of them, and the other is starting. It does not mean that those are the deadlines, but I do want to point out that things are not so fast either; serious analyzes must be done, which must be started now, they must be discussed socially, institutionally, and then adopt the decisions. In view of the experience that one has, it does not seem so simple or so fast to me.
