The Cabildo de Tenerife continues, two years after proceeding to evict the site of scientific interest of La Caleta de Adeje, with the work for its environmental recovery. At the same time, it maintains the operation that “invites” people who use the protected space to establish huts and shacks without authorization and with the intention of staying in the area for a long time to vacate this place.
Surveillance at the Site of Scientific Interest (SIC) has been active since, in September 2020, the removal of almost two tons of waste from the SIC was carried out, while a total of 122 cabins and caves were dismantled .
“Repeatedly, attempts are made to reoccupy the caves by installing mats, tarps and other objects in them,” said the island councilor Isabel García. “For this reason, both the agents of the Environment of the South zone and a crew of three workers work almost exclusively pending the attempts of occupation that occur” in this enclave of the Adeje coast, she said.
The councilor asked the citizens for collaboration and respect for environmental regulations, “since we are talking about a protected space that, for no reason, can be occupied again in that irresponsible and unsustainable way in which it had become”.
With a surface area of 78.3 hectares and classified as a Site of Scientific Interest for the purpose of “conserving and maintaining a relevant coastal space that serves as a refuge for threatened seabirds, as well as wading and migratory birds”, in the middle of the year 2020 this place was populated by those who chose it to live or to spend long periods of time in a hundred booths and caves, one of the largest occupations that are remembered in this space.
Accumulated garbage, alterations in the land, marks on the dunes, dirt, bad smell… In the subsequent cleaning action, 1,800 kilos of debris were removed from the enclave, among which were plastic, household goods, clothing, remains of wood and palm leaves, as well as rubbish of all kinds. 29 large, 38 medium-sized and 55 small huts and caves were dismantled.
In the two years that have elapsed, the attempts to reoccupy this place have not ceased. The best known was recorded in July 2021. Then, the surveillance device, made up of Environment agents, evicted more than 50 people in the area of the Los Burros ravine and Los Acantilados de Diego Hernández, in La Caleta de Adeje. The agents of the Environment raised eight acts of infraction during a weekend.
