Defenders and detractors of the Teide Master Plan debate this Thursday about the future of the National Park

Environmental organizations have called for this Thursday, the 30th, a debate on the controversial draft of the Master Plan for the Use and Management of the Teide National Park. The appointment will take place at the Liceo de Taoro, in La Orotava, at 7:30 p.m., and will be moderated by the journalist David Cuesta. Defenders and detractors of the project will intervene, among them, the Minister of Ecological Transition José Antonio Valbuena; the professor of ecology at the ULL, José María Fernández-Palacios; the president of the Tenerife Mountaineering Federation, Humberto Domínguez; the tourist and low and medium mountain guide, Félix de la Rosa; Juan Pedro Hernández, from the Coordinator of El Rincón-Ecologistas en Acción; and Jaime Coello, from the Telesforo Bravo and Juan Coello Foundation.

Overcrowding, climate change and invasive species, the urgent threats to the conservation of the Teide National Park

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The debate, organized by the El Rincón Ecological Coordinator, Ben Magec, ATAN and the Telesforo Bravo Foundation and Juan Coello, will put on the table what will be the future of the National Park, one of the most visited in the world and constantly vandalized.

A few days ago, the Minister of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands, José Antonio Valbuena, assured that “There will be no PRUG without consensus.” “Our priority is to reach an agreement and the Government is going to guarantee the participation of all groups, because active listening is the premise in everything we do,” he said. His presence in this debate is proof of that.

Among the biggest controversies of this plan is the prohibition of filming, unless they are documentaries about Teide; restrictions on uses for athletes; the limitations to park vehicles and the construction of parking areas; the lack of foresight to increase the security devices and agents that monitor the environment; the issue of bus shuttles, contemplated in the Mobility Plan of the Cabildo de Tenerife, in anticipation of the approval of the PRUG; the cost that climbing Teide will mean now, or the measures to take care of the flora and fauna of the place, constantly threatened.

Preserving one of the most visited enclaves on the island

Las Cañadas del Teide is the first National Park established as such in the Canary Islands (January 22, 1954) and in 2007 it received World Heritage status from UNESCO, which recognizes it as one of the richest and most diverse places in the Canary Islands. all the world.

The CSIC delegate in the Canary IslandsManuel Nogales, warned in a statement of the increase in the number of visitors to the Park over the years until reaching in 2018, before the pandemic, more than four million visitors concentrated in an area of ​​only about 190 square kilometers.

In addition, he recalled that in 1989 the Council of Europe awarded the enclave the European diploma in its highest category, still in force today, considerations that highlight the “obvious uniqueness” of this protected area and its natural values ​​in a global context, hence, the new Governing Plan for Use and Management has “particular relevance” within the network of natural spaces in the Spanish state.

Added to this urgency, he continued, is the fact that Teide currently presents “serious problems”, from the point of view of the conservation of its biota, related to the presence of two introduced herbivores, the mouflon and the rabbit.

Along these lines, he points out that these “threats” show the necessary implementation of a new “more restrictive” regulation in terms of its conservation.