A multitude of people from different parts of the Archipelago demonstrated this Saturday morning against the urban macro-projects on the island of Tenerife, such as the port of Adeje (which already has more than 30,000 signatures against) or the motor circuit. The appointment has been convened by different groups in defense of the territory such as Salvar La Tejita, Fundación Telesforo Bravo, Ben Magec-Ecologistas en Acción or ATAN, among others.
Photo gallery | Demonstration in Tenerife against large urban and tourist projects on the island
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The entourage left from Plaza Weyler at 11:00 a.m. and slogans such as “The Canary Islands are not for sale”, “tourism moratorium now”, “for a clean sea, no more spills” or “less cement and more foundation” have been heard. The claim has thus focused on a change in the economic model in the Islands and in defense of the territory.
The mobilization was called against works that they consider are going to “wipe out areas such as Puertito de Adeje” and for other issues such as wastewater discharges that “have been out of control for years, the non-stop construction of hotels, the lack of purification and sanitation, continuing to try to dust off projects such as the port of Fonsalía or the master plan for puddles”.
“We demand a radical change in environmental policies, once and for all protecting our natural landscapes, our true treasure, our land cannot withstand more tourist pressure and more environmental damage,” the calling groups insist.
Against the macro project in Adeje
“They will end up throwing out the fishermen” who have traditionally lived there, said this week a spokesman for the Tenerife Association of Friends of Nature (ATAN) in reference to the little port of Adeje. The legal commission of ATAN continues to study the legal formulas to appeal the partial plan of Puertito de Adeje and prevent the tourist complex from being built, which, in its opinion, would end the last redoubt of the coast free of urban occupation in the west of Tenerife.
In his opinion, on land the project will directly affect a Site of Scientific Interest for its cardonal-tabaibal, which has already suffered the destruction of specimens with the start of construction of the road that will lead to the new tourist development. ATAN warns that the inhabitants of El Puertito will also be affected, since the planning of the place has been changed from a residential area to a commercial one.
At the moment, two complaints and possible archaeological remains in the Puertito de Adeje have managed to paralyze the works of the tourism macro-project. However, the Ecological Association Save La Tejita presented this Thursday, June 2, a complaint before the Canarian Agency for the Protection of the Natural Environment upon detecting that the works continue in the Port of Adejein spite of the precautionary stoppage imposed by the Cabildo de Tenerife on May 31 due to the existence of archaeological sites not registered until now.
Overcrowded and impoverished islands
According to the Efe agency, the organizers assure that the mobilization has gathered some 8,000 people, a figure that differs from that of the Government Delegation that has informed this agency that the maximum influx was reached with 1,800 people between Méndez Núñez street and El Pilar street.
One of the spokespersons for the concentration and the person in charge of reading the manifesto, Atteneri Rivero, has pointed out that the tourist 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.
“Stop! 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 that we are already suffering”, said the botanical biologist. In the manifesto that he has read, he has demanded a tourist moratorium to plan a plan to decrease tourism, that 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.”
The Efe agency also collects the statements of the biologist Pablo Martín, who 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 announced and there are more destruction that puts biodiversity and conservation at risk.
Pablo Martín, promoter of the initiative “The natural puddles do not touch”, 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.
