A few days ago, the Cabildo de Lanzarote took a new step in the processing of the Master Plan for Use and Management (PRUG) of the Chinijo Archipelago Natural Park, after the approval of the scope document of the Strategic Environmental Study by the Insular Environmental Assessment Body. It may seem like just another technical procedure, but in reality it represents a decisive advance in the planning and protection of one of the most valuable natural areas of our archipelago.
Territorial plans and norms are not simple administrative documents. They are, in essence, fundamental tools to protect the territory, order uses, and ensure that the development of Lanzarote and La Graciosa is compatible with the conservation of our natural heritage in conjunction with the quality of life of those who live here.
From the Department of Environment we are very aware of this. The Cabildo is the managing body of the island's protected natural areas, and having clear and updated planning instruments will allow us to make decisions with greater legal certainty in situations that directly affect our territory: from the regulation of activities in sensitive areas to action against complaints for improper land use or environmental impacts.
That is why I want to take advantage of these lines to value and thank the great work that the Department of Territorial Policy, which my colleague Jesús Machín skillfully directs, along with his entire technical team, is carrying out. In just three years of government in the Cabildo, under the government of the Cabildo presided over by Oswaldo Betancort, all the territorial planning instruments that for years remained paralyzed have been successfully unblocked.
The reality is that when we arrived at the island government, we found ourselves with a difficult situation to justify: Lanzarote and La Graciosa were still dragging along an Island Land Use Plan from 1991, manifestly obsolete and without the capacity to respond to current challenges. Worse still, the well-known Ezquiaga Plan, which had cost more than 600,000 euros and gathered broad social consensuses, was literally thrown in the trash in the last legislature.
Furthermore, we were the only island in the Canary Islands that did not have an Environmental Assessment Body, an essential tool for processing and streamlining territorial planning. Its creation in this term has been decisive for unblocking key documents that today are firmly advancing.
Thanks to that work, progress has been made in the processing of fundamental instruments such as the Special Plan for the Protected Landscape of La Geria, the PRUG of the Chinijo Archipelago, the PORN of the Los Volcanes Natural Park, the ordinances for camping areas, or the ordinance for the implementation of renewable energies, which will allow clearly establishing where wind or photovoltaic infrastructures can be installed and where not, guaranteeing their compatibility with our landscape.
But without a doubt one of the most relevant milestones is the steps being taken allowing progress in what will be the new Island Land Use Plan (PIOT). This initial strategic document foresees protecting 60% of the island territory, tripling the land allocated to the primary sector and eliminating more than 100,000 square meters of tourist land in Playa Blanca, reclassifying it as a protected natural area.
It's not just about organizing the territory. It's about preserving the environment, the identity, and the essence of Lanzarote and La Graciosa. We are talking about islands internationally recognized as a Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO Global Geopark, and a territory recognized as World Agricultural Heritage (SIPAM), distinctions that recognize a unique model of relationship between landscape, culture, and human activity. Maintaining that balance requires planning, regulation, clear rules, and brave decisions.
The planning instruments will allow, for example, to precisely regulate certain activities that today generate social controversy or environmental impacts. Among them, issues such as the prohibition of rofe export or regulating its extraction, a traditional activity that needs clear criteria on where it can be carried out and under what conditions to avoid landscape degradation.
Similarly, these plans will allow clearly ordering motorized recreational activities in the natural environment, such as buggy or quad tours, establishing authorized itineraries and limitations in especially sensitive areas to avoid damage to the soil, flora, or protected spaces. They will also be fundamental for clearly defining tourist and residential uses in certain environments, especially in places as fragile as La Graciosa or the Famara surroundings, where it is necessary to determine where holiday housing is compatible and where the protection of the territory and the quality of life of residents must prevail.
In parallel, tools like the ordinance for the implementation of renewable energies will allow progress in the energy transition, but doing so with planning and respect for the landscape that characterizes us. For the first time, it will be Lanzarote and La Graciosa who determine with technical criteria where wind or photovoltaic installations should and should not be implemented, avoiding visual or territorial impacts incompatible with our identity.
All of this responds to a single objective: to order to protect. Because protecting Lanzarote does not mean paralyzing its development, but rather directing it with intelligence, with planning and with respect towards a territory that is unique in the world.
This is, furthermore, the course that the president of the Cabildo, Oswaldo Betancort, has set since the beginning of this legislature, who, in the face of the evident demagoguery of the previous socialist government, has promoted a way of governing based on real coordination between areas and on joint action to face the great challenges of our island. Under his presidency, the different areas of the Cabildo are working in an aligned manner, combining efforts and sharing objectives, with an undeniable conviction: protecting
our territory is also protecting our future.
From Environment we will continue advancing in that direction, hand in hand with the rest of the areas of the Cabildo and, especially as far as we are concerned, with the Department of Territorial Policy, to guarantee that every decision we make always has as its horizon the conservation of our land, of our landscape and of our identity. Because Lanzarote cannot afford to improvise its future. And protecting the identity of what we are today is the best way to guarantee what we will be tomorrow.