A group of people has started a camp this Friday on a farm where the ‘Cuna del Alma’ urbanization is planned to be built, in the vicinity of the Port of Adejeto demand the stoppage of the project.
Protesters criticize the “collusion” of local public administrations —Adeje Town HallCabildo de Tenerife and the Government of the Canary Islands– with the promoters given that since the process began, a series of “regulatory breaches” have been recorded that affect the natural and cultural heritage.
However, this has not meant the stoppage of the works that began last May, despite the fact that there are unfavorable reports from the Cabildo de Tenerife –November 18, 2014 and May 12, 2017–.
They also indicate that the project’s environmental report, approved in March 2019, “was not technically and professionally rigorous” and does not even detail the impacts on the eight plant species protected in the planning sphere, as well as the threatened common stone curlew, a species whose protection status requires the protection of its habitat.
In this report, in addition, “any impact on the adjacent marine environment is denied,” they point out.
The protesters recall that as a result of a complaint from the Tegüico cultural association, the Cabildo made a report in five weeks that gave rise to the precautionary suspension of the works upon detecting serious patrimonial infractions, but it is limited to recommending the fencing of the affected area and rules out conducting a comprehensive study.
They also highlight that Puertito de Adeje has a “unique” natural and cultural wealth in Tenerife, the Canary Islands and the Middle Atlantic, “as it is an enclave of enormous geological, geomorphological, botanical, faunal, marine, archaeological, ethnographic and historical”.
They indicate that the project represents “the tip of the iceberg of an outdated economic model that only causes dependence on tourism and loss of competitiveness of the sector itself, loss of agricultural land and food sovereignty, unemployment and poverty”, plus environmental, landscape damage and heritage.
This model, they underline, “clearly goes against the new parameters that are pursued at the global level to achieve sustainable development, fight against climate change and achieve the Millennium Goals.”
