SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Aug 25 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce of the Government of the Canary Islands has shared with the Ministry of Ecological Transition the ‘Master Plan of Puddles in Marea’, a project in which it has tried to identify the problems that exist due to the use of people and propose a technical solution for improvement and submit it for consideration and consensus with the competent entities.
Thus, this Wednesday the first work meetings began to publicize this project in which integration and respect for nature are prioritized.
This meeting, in which the Vice Minister of Tourism, Teresa Berástegui; the general director of Tourist Infrastructure, Fernando Miñarro; The Deputy Minister of the Fight against Climate Change and Ecological Transition, Miguel Ángel Pérez, is the first of a plan that will also include the participation of all the administrations involved and in which it has been made clear by Turismo de Canarias that It is not contemplated to intervene in the puddles, but to make a proposal to improve their surroundings, adapting them where necessary and whenever feasible and authorized by all the competent administrations.
In this regard, both departments of the Government of the Canary Islands agreed to create a multidisciplinary team in which puddles that require some type of intervention to improve their environment will be analyzed, as well as to make their biodiversity known so that their users or visitors become aware.
According to the memory of the master plan, the initiative is justified in the detected need to carry out actions to improve the quality of some identified public spaces that are degraded and obsolete, understanding that “it is the responsibility of the administration to maintain them in the appropriate conditions of health and safety and in a way that is sustainable and integrated into the landscape “.
ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES
In this sense, at the meeting on Wednesday it was shared that the best way to protect and preserve these natural resources of the Canary Islands is to put them in value, making known what their technical and environmental capacities and their benefits are and what are their optimal ways of use in such a way that it can be combined, be it bathing, in some cases, or just contemplation, in others, with its environmental protection.
As Teresa Berástegui has explained, “respect for the landscape value and the particular interest of each of the tidal pools is the most important aspect, hence the collaboration with Transición Ecológica, Costas and the municipalities is essential”, while He added that “the environmental assessment will always be prior to the drafting of any project, as is already reflected in the document.”
In this sense, the general director of Tourist Infrastructure also defends the need to protect puddles.
“Knowing well their attributes and the correct way to enjoy them, because today they are being used in an inappropriate way and if we continue like this we will lose the richness that characterizes them,” he said.
In addition, he added that “many of these places are already being visited frequently and need the adaptation of some of their elements, so that, for example, a staircase in poor condition can be replaced or safety information can be improved, or previously installed cement elements are eliminated in their surroundings, replacing them if necessary with other more sustainable and integrated ones “.
For his part, the Deputy Minister of the Fight against Climate Change and Ecological Transition, Miguel Ángel Pérez, advanced that his department has the purpose of not acting in any puddle that has not been previously anthropized, that is, that this plan will be limited to environments that have experienced some kind of previous action.
ACTIONS AGREED WITH THE CITY COUNCILS
In the same way, it shares with Tourism the need for each intervention to be agreed with the corresponding municipalities and with the Ministry of Ecological Transition itself for its review, from the point of view of its environmental viability.
Likewise, he showed the willingness of his department to work on this initial draft and adapt it to the objectives, with the purpose that this initiative serves to raise the environmental value of the puddles of the Canary Islands.
After this meeting, Teresa Berástegui and Fernando Miñarro have had a meeting with the promoter of the initiative ‘The puddles do not touch’ with whom they have analyzed the plan, its objectives, its conditions and how environmental conservation will be prioritized in any of the actions that can be carried out to cover the needs detected.
In that meeting, they have shown him their total willingness to receive all the contributions that he may have as a marine biologist specialized in Biodiversity and Conservation, both in reference to the initial plan or to future execution projects, since what it is about is to carry out carry out a sustainable, strategic and territorial project that improves people’s relationship with the natural environment, and raise awareness of the need to conserve these places and avoid, by meeting the detected needs, their inappropriate use.
The campaign ‘The puddles do not touch’, launched a few days ago on the change.org platform, already has more than 11,800 signatures of support and some institutions and political parties, in the case of the La Laguna City Council or the Canary Coalition, have shown themselves against of the Executive’s plan.