Master Plan for the Use and Management of Teide: More than 90 million euros for three infrastructures next to the Teide National Park: “They want to strain another tome”


“This is the gherkin fattest of Master Plan for the Use and Management (PRUG) of Teide: they want to sneak us another tome at the gates of the National Park”, warned this week the environmentalist Jaime Coello, from the Telesforo Bravo-Juan Coello Foundation, in an interview with the journalist David Cuesta on Mírame TV, after making it known that among the infrastructures that are proposed to be executed in the environment of the park, to achieve the objective of “conservation and management”, three bus shuttles with parking areas and, according to the ecologist, “with a restaurant and shopping area” are targeted. One of these buildings will be established in Chío, another in Vilaflor and a third in El Portillo, “at the gates of the park” and with “an estimated investment of 90 million euros”. The document, which is still only a draft, does not include the construction of these infrastructures in any of its sections, but these will form part of another text: the mobility plan that the Island Council will apply in the area, collecting the novelties introduced by the PRUG.

The controversial draft of the Plan, commissioned by the Ministry of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands to the public company Gesplan, highlights in the presentation of its objectives that the National Park will be provided “with an infrastructure system that meets existing needs and that, in addition, is compatible with its conservation and management objectives. Limiting road traffic on Teide is identified in this document as one of those needs that requires an immediate solution. To do this, the launch of a series of shuttle buses that take locals and tourists from the outskirts of the park to Las Cañadas is proposed. Transport, in this case, would depart from three new bus stations with parking lots to leave private vehicles, interchanges that will also have shops and restaurants, as explained by Coello. These constructions are not included in the draft.

The Minister of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands, José Antonio Valbuena, has come out against the numerous criticisms that the text has received and has insisted this Wednesday that the PRUG “does not contemplate the construction of any commercial area or large area” within of the park, but it does describe “service areas” where the vehicles will park on the outskirts of the park and from which the shuttle buses will depart. These infrastructures, in El Portillo, already within the forest crown, Chío and Vilaflor, do not yet exist, so they have to be built.

Valbuena has insisted that vehicle traffic is not prohibited through the roads of this natural enclave and in which the draft states that “road traffic will be free for any vehicle, so the right of transit will be guaranteed for those who wish to use any of the TF-21, TF-24 or TF-38”. However, parking will not be free, which will be limited to specific areas in which the Plan does include the possibility of charging for its use.

The plan leaves in the hands of the Cabildo de Tenerife, as the competent administration, the final definition of the sustainable mobility plan that is decided to apply in this environment. “What is reflected in this draft are measures to encourage the use of public and sustainable transport that will be offered from the shuttles located outside the extension of the park”, with measures that are mainly based on the regulation of available parking spaces. . The use of these shuttle buses, like the car parks, may be subject to payment.

Valbuena also insists that traffic is only regulated in certain time slots of the day in which there is a greater influx of public and in which some incidents have been detected, such as the invasion of vehicles in unauthorized sections and even damage to the native flora of Teide.

“The excuse given by the National Park to establish the shuttle there is that El Portillo is degraded. If this is the case, it would have to be regenerated, not to introduce such an infrastructure”, adds Jaime Coello, who recalls that there is a problem of volcanic gases in this area. “It’s nonsense from all points of view and the government insists, we don’t know why, on putting this infrastructure through our eyes.” His Foundation defends, in any case, that it be carried out in Aguamansa or Las Lagunetas, several kilometers away and much closer to the metropolitan area, to also contribute to the economic development of the neighboring municipalities, “which is one of the things that are discussed in the National Parks Law,” he explained.

During the interview, the environmentalist described the situation of the mobile fleet on the island as “savage”: an average of 8.5 vehicles for every 10 inhabitants, not counting the thousands of rental cars. He warned about the environmental damage that these data mean for landscapes as fragile and protected as Mount Teide, Teno or Anaga. That is why Coello welcomes the limitation of mobility in the National Park, although he is not convinced by the idea of ​​a new “pharaonic work”. “The problem is the location of the shuttles. We could see Chío and Vilaflor well, but the one in El Portillo is a huge problem: the movement in that pre-park zone, in the forest crown, is going to be brutal”, he emphasized.

“Oscurantism” in the explanations

For the environmental foundation, “both the Cabildo de Tenerife and the Government of the Canary Islands are determined to build a station in El Portillo.” However, they have not informed the National Park Board of Trustees of this relevant matter, which “has learned of the claims from the press.”

“If there is a public participation process, which has not yet culminated in a final decision, how does the Government of the Canary Islands spend 460,000 euros to develop a project that is not definitive and how does it propose spending 90 million euros on these three large infrastructures?” questions Jaime Coello.

On the other hand, these infrastructures will require a change of land use to commercial use. “It is enough that they try to sneak an infrastructure like this through this instrument. In addition, the PRUG should not qualify as land. Is the City Council of La Orotava going to modify its use to make it developable? ”, He questions, asking for explanations from the political representatives. “Here there are very big things and they should tell why they have been so obscurantists that they have presented this at the national level and the people from the board of trustees find out at the end and through the media,” he concluded.

La Orotava opposes a bus station in El Portillo

The mobility plan presented on purpose in the draft of the PRUG has activated all the alerts in the City Council of La Orotava, whose mayor offered a press conference on Tuesday to give an explanation of his position on the matter. Francisco Linares, from the Canarian Coalition, expressed his surprise at the publication of an image of the infrastructure that could be used for parking lots next to the National Park and asserted that, if this large construction is contemplated, he will actively oppose it: “It is simply inadmissible and it is the philosophical spirit that the park has”.

The truth is that the Canary Coalition has positioned itself against these “macro-works”. Both Rosa Dávila, Secretary of Organization of the party, and Carlos Alonso, former president of the Tenerife Cabildo, gave a press conference on Wednesday in which they called for the withdrawal of the PGRU and described the planned infrastructure as an “ecological and landscape attack”.

The increase in security, a loophole in the PRUG

The draft of the Master Plan for the Use and Management of the Teide National Park has provoked all kinds of criticism from various sectors of Canarian society. Ecologists, hikers, cyclists, animal lovers, politicians, filmmakers and producers reject or have expressed their doubts regarding this draft, which restricts access to one of the most impressive landscapes on the island and, in many cases, prohibits or limits some of the activities that until now take place in the place.

Other voices, although with nuances, applaud the intention to renew the current plan. This is the case of the Telesforo Bravo environmental foundation: “Clearly, the current plan is insufficient to respond to all the vandalism that is being seen there.” However, he harshly criticizes the way in which the PRUG draft has been executed. “It happens that there are many distortions in the process. The first is that the body in charge of managing the National Park, which is the Cabildo de Tenerife, does business there” through companies such as Volcano Teide or the Tenerife Film Commission, which manages audiovisual filming on the island. “That distortion is very difficult to solve,” argued Jaime Coello on Mírame TV.

For environmentalists, the large pending debt has more to do with security, a section that is lame in the PGRU. To avoid acts of vandalism “the Government of the Canary Islands has to get more places for Environment agents, but it does not get them”. “There is a lack of more personnel to monitor 24 hours a day. A National Park like Teide cannot be without surveillance from certain hours of the day and night”, he added.

CC is positioned along the same lines, reminding us that for more than 12 hours a day no one watches the Park. Francisco Linares points directly to the lack of Environment agents and asks that a space for the Civil Guard be re-installed in the park, as it was until about twelve years ago. The agents of the meritorious and the Local Police of La Orotava “are the ones who have to go in the event of any incident, being an hour away,” he said on Tuesday.

The Popular Party also rejects the draft, which it has described as “barbarity”, for which he has asked that it be withdrawn and a broader consensus be reached, especially with the most affected sectors.


For its part, Sí Podemos Canarias called for citizen participation in the draft so that allegations and proposals are made within the deadline. However, this Wednesday it has gone further and has asked the Natural Environment Area of ​​the Cabildo for detailed information about the control of exotic species contemplated in the Teide PGRU, understanding that “it must be carried out using the least bloody methods possible” and this point is not clarified in the draft.

Also the president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín (PSOE), indicated that it was necessary to review the Plan and “give him a little head” and not only prohibit activities, referring to the beekeeping facilities that exist in the Park and film or advertising shootings.

The end of filming

The Canary Islands Audiovisual Cluster, which brings together more than 60 companies in the sector, and the Tenerife Film Commission, a company dependent on the Cabildo, have also spoken about this, rejecting the draft because it “practically prohibits” filming inside the Park.

Those that are now going to be allowed will only be those that are directly related to the National Park and its environmental richness. “To be the set of a great production, Mount Teide should not be there”, declared the environmentalist Jaime Coello, against the arguments of the sector, who recalls that there is no evidence of damage caused by filming and that it is an important engine economical for the island.

Hikers, athletes and other sportspeople have also expressed their doubts or their rejection of the PRUG, which limits the development of these activities. However, explains the Telesforo Bravo Foundation, at this point “the document has a confusing wording” and points out that what is prohibited is training for mountain races, for which trail races will be eliminated, as well as the cycling on tracks, “now you can only ride a bike on the roads”.

Extension of the deadline for claims

Given the commotion formed before the document, the Ministry of Ecological Transition has extended the period of public exposure until next July 22. The official publication of this modification will be made in the next few days through the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands.



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