A multitude of people have demonstrated in Santa Cruz de Tenerife this Saturday against the “urban collapse” of the island and, specifically, in rejection of the tourism project in the Port of Adeje.
The demonstration, convened by the Tenerife Association of Friends of Nature (ATAN), Save Fonsalía, Save La Tejita, Save El Puertito, Telesforo Bravo Foundation, Tegüico, Youth for Climate Tenerife, Ben Magec-Ecologists in Action and Assembly in Defense de Nuestra Tierra, among others, began after 11 am in Plaza Weyler and ended in front of the Cabildo de Tenerife, where a manifesto was read.
According to the organizers, it has gathered some 8,000 people, a figure that differs from that of the Government Delegation that has informed Efe that the maximum influx was reached with 1,800 people between Méndez Núñez street and El Pilar street.
Slogans such as “No to the tomb of the soul project”; “There is no room for more people in Tenerife”, “The Canary Islands are not for sale”, “Tourism moratorium now” or “No more dumping”.
One of the spokespersons for the concentration and the person in charge of reading the manifesto, Atteneri Rivero, has pointed out that the tourism project in Puertito de Adeje is “a new bite to the scarce and mistreated territory” that takes away protected species, cacti centenarians, culture and quality of life.
“Enough is enough! We live on overcrowded, overpopulated islands, where there have never been limits, where the political class never listens to scientists, experts and associations that have been warning us of the collapse we are already suffering,” said the botanical biologist.
In the manifesto you have read you have demanded a tourist moratorium to plan a tourism decrease planthat a residence law be established to curb “infinite growth in a very limited territory” and that new large infrastructures be curbed, “that the only thing they will do is continue destroying our island and its natural spaces.”
Likewise, it has claimed the creation of marine reserves, the expansion of protected natural spaces and the surveillance and control of the environment, among other measures.
He has said “enough of precariousness” because, as he has commented, society has been sold that tourism generates wealth in the Canary Islands, which, however, is the second autonomous community with the highest rate of poverty and social exclusion in Spain.
Regarding the Cuna del Alma project, in El Puertito de Adeje, which he has referred to as the “tomb of the soul”, he has said that it is “the tomb of this obsolete model of development that is leading a large part of the Canary Islands to collapse”.
Another of the spokespersons, the marine biologist specializing in conservation and biodiversity Pablo Martín, has indicated that the reason for the concentration is to try to stop “the destruction that is being done to the island”, since more and more projects are being announce and there is more destruction that puts biodiversity and conservation at risk.
Pablo Martín, promoter of the “Natural puddles do not touch” initiative, has indicated that the tourist project in Puertito de Adeje was “the straw that broke the camel’s back” to demand a tourist moratorium and “control and order” in everything that is done.
In the specific case of Puertito de Adeje, he has warned that if a hotel is built in this area, the La Caleta site of scientific interest will be cornered and human pressure will increase in that environment, where populations of cardonal tabaibal and species of flora live. and fauna that, as reported, are not included in the environmental impact report.
The works of the macro-project “Cuna del alma” have been paralyzed in a precautionary way by the Insular Directorate of Planning of the Territory and Historical Heritage of the Cabildo de Tenerife pending a technical report on the protection of the archaeological elements present in the enclave.
This project, promoted by Belgian investors, aims to develop a ravine and a beach in Armeñime next to the aforementioned protected area and foresees the construction of some 430,000 square meters with more than 400 luxury villas, hotels, restaurants, swimming pools, a beach club and other infrastructures, such as an orchard whose extension (20,000 square meters) invades part of the Site of Scientific Interest of the Protected Nature Reserve of Adeje.
