The coordinator of Nueva Canarias in Tenerife, Valentín Correa, this Friday rejected the Sustainable Mobility Plan of the Cabildo de Tenerife, which contemplates the construction of three infrastructures next to the National Park to house the buses that serve as a shuttle for visitors when they cannot access the Park in private vehicles, as stated in the draft of the Master Plan for Use and Management (PRUG) of the Teide National Park. For this reason, Correa has also requested a study on the carrying capacity of the National Park.
More than 90 million euros for three infrastructures next to the Teide National Park: “They want to strain another tome”
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This document, he highlights, “requires important improvements and, in no case, can it house the construction of excessive infrastructures, such as transport interchanges that serve as shuttles for buses, since these buildings are neither sustainable nor take care of the landscape. nor do they contribute to the preservation of our environment”.
In Correa’s opinion, Mount Teide “is part of our identity and does not deserve to house, especially in the El Portillo area, an excessive infrastructure that would cause irreversible damage to the natural environment and landscape of the island.”
In his opinion, “there are ways to improve the way in which tourists and residents currently visit the National Park, but none of them involves the construction of monstrous transport interchanges, we still have time to stop this authentic aberration” .
Correa made these statements after the meeting of the Insular Committee of Nueva Canarias in Tenerife, held late on Thursday at the new island headquarters in La Laguna, and added that the new Teide National Park PRUG “It lacks effective solutions in terms of the material and human resources with which the area should be provided for its correct conservation.”
The NC coordinator in Tenerife also emphasized the importance “of the surveillance of the National Park by environmental agents, since this has been drastically reduced in recent times, thus favoring acts of vandalism and practices that are not recommended in such a sensitive environment.”
Similarly, Correa also drew attention to “the evident lack of communication with other administrations, such as the island’s municipalities, which should have a more active and decisive participation in the preparation of this document.”
In this sense, he continued, “we miss a more representative process of society, it would be essential to give a greater degree of importance to universities, environmental, sociocultural, sports and primary sector organizations.”
Tourist tax
Correa considers essential “the development and implementation of a PRUG that regulates the uses and conservation of a natural environment, unique in the world and a World Heritage Site, such as the Teide National Park”. But he understands that this document “must start from an informative process for Tenerife society, organized groups and other administrations, in short, it is about starting a participatory process that is much more representative than the current one.”
NC in Tenerife considers that, given the current situation and the controversy that has arisen, “the current phase of public exposure and allegations must be reconsidered in order to start an informative process that reveals all the details of the PRUG, since there are important inconcretions and deficiencies to subsequently launch a participatory process that is much broader and more representative than the one that is being carried out right now”.
In the same way, Correa recommends that the Cabildo de Tenerife “carry out a sustainable mobility study at the island level, which takes into account the environmental impact of the proposed infrastructures and the participation of all the municipalities of the island, with special attention to those that limit with the entrances to the Teide National Park”.
The NC coordinator in Tenerife is also committed to carrying out a “meticulous and exhaustive study of the load capacity of the National Park in order to establish influx criteria and, once these results are known, it would be interesting to study the implementation of a rate finalist, for visitors to Teide who are not Canarian residents, whose proceeds would go towards the conservation and maintenance of the Teide National Park itself”.
