«The Plan warns an absence of scientific rigor and ignorance of the natural space and of the historical practice of traditional mountaineering ”, point out the mountaineers. The new standard is still in the process of setting up but this group of athletes believes that it should be improved. Take the cars out of Teide and reduce traffic in the National Park with three bus stations that offer guided tours. It is another of the main objectives of the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo de Tenerife with the new Master Plan for the Use and Management of Teide (PRUG), the draft of which advances towards approval at the end of the year or early 2022. It seeks to improve the conservation of the most visited protected area in Spain, with more than 4.4 million people in the years prior to the pandemic of covid-19.
Lack of human resources
For the Tenerife, Canary Islands and Spanish mountaineering federations, «probably the lack of human and material resources that this National Park has suffered and the intensity of tourism have led to the fact that the management is based on restrictions and prohibitions that affect, in the first place, to the inhabitants of Tenerife and those of the rest of the Islands and, secondly, to all those visitors who walk or climb through the National Park ».
Not one of the allegations presented by the representatives of the Canarian federation of this discipline, in the period of prior public consultation, “has been taken into account”, these athletes denounce. «They were dispatched in their assessment with generalities that do not take into account the particular characteristics of the public use of the Park’s territory what we mountaineers do without considering that it is a group that develops an activity considered traditional in the current PRUG, has been a member of the Teide Board for two decades and has repeatedly stood for its environmental commitment with deeds and not only with words » .
The Canarian mountaineering federations represent a collective of 24,000 people, many of whom frequent this space during the 12 months of the year and carry out environmental volunteering, awareness-raising and environmental education activities. “However, in the current administrative procedure they have not been considered as interested persons, although it is done with entities with little representation or with no connection with the National Park,” the statement details.
The Spanish Federation of Mountain and Climbing Sports (Fedme) has stood out in the last two decades among all sports federations “for its environmental commitment, also reflected in its statutes.” «The first seminar organized jointly with the National Parks Autonomous Organization was held in 1999, precisely on Mount Teide. Since then se have held more than a dozen meetings with environmental managers of national parks, published scientific studies, codes of good practices, joint declarations, disclosure … », they recall.
Willingness to collaborate
«The steps backwards that are evidenced in this proposal for the Master Plan of Use and Management contrast with the repeated offer of the Canarian federative representatives to collaborate with the promoters of this crucial document, which will govern the uses of Teide for the next few years “, the mountaineers point out, who conclude:” We want to be listened to and taken into account. We would not like to have to go to court ».
The new PRUG is currently in the final period of the environmental assessment phase. Miguel Ángel Pérez, Deputy Minister of Ecological Transition and Fight Against Climate Change of the Government of the Canary Islands, assures that it is the process of public information. Pérez believes that “there are guarantees of environmental protection inherent to a natural space like this, but we wanted to produce the document with an impact report.”
