The botanical report commissioned by the Council of Tenerife limits the presence of the sad viper plant (Echium triste) to 8,605 square meters, 2% of the 437,000 covered by the Cuna del Alma tourism project, in the Puertito de Adeje. The promoter will request that it be authorized to resume works on 96% of the land without any damage (there is another 2% suspended due to the existence of archaeological remains).
The botanical report on the scope of the Cuna del Alma project. Sector SO-6 Puertito de Adeje (Tenerife) consists of 39 pages and was prepared by biologists from the environmental services company Bejeque Medio Ambiente, commissioned by the Cabildo de Tenerife. This plant is included in annex IV of the Canary Islands Catalog of Protected Species, within the category of special protection. It is found on the southern and southwestern slopes of Tenerife and La Gomera and grows up to 350 meters above sea level on slopes or on the edges of abandoned crops, roads and dirt tracks.
The Ministry of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands announced last Friday the precautionary stoppage of works corresponding to the Cuna del Alma tourism project, in the Puertito de Adeje. The area managed by the regional councilor José Antonio Valbuena justifies the measure by pointing out the presence of specimens of the sad viper plant (Echium triste), so the works represent a “imminent threat of environmental damage to protected wild flora”. In addition, Valbuena maintains that “the Cuna del Alma project lacked the environmental impact study in accordance with the law.”
“We will leave it in the hands of the technicians, who are the ones who have to comment on it”
The sad snake is an endemic canary, “a special annual or biennial, herbaceous, with linear and hispid leaves in a basal rosette and flowers in inflorescence with some lateral cymes, with a white or pale pink corolla, with a narrow tube and stamens slightly longer than this one”according to the definition contained in the botanical report that the Cabildo has.
“There are no data or indications that a regression in the area of occupation has occurred or is occurring,” specify the biologists, who estimated the population of the sad viborina “in 165 adult specimens (only one with flowers) and 1,177 seedlings distributed in 17 nuclei”.
Corrective measures
The promoter company is working on the allegations that it will present, for which it has a period of 15 days from when it was notified last Friday of the precautionary suspension of the construction of the tourist complex by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Government of Canary Islands. In them, it will propose the adoption of corrective measures in order to continue with the development of the work, taking into account that, in addition, it tries not to affect this protected species from the moment its presence was verified, according to authorized sources.
«We chained a radical and baseless opposition to strategic projects»
In any case, the Government of the Canary Islands has a period of up to nine months by law to resolve the file opened on Friday, the 11th. «We are waiting for what is proposed to find out what the meaning of that resolution is definitive”, declared the counselor José Antonio Valbuena. It should be remembered that the Adeje City Council, in addition, maintains that the works that were carried out are covered by the General Planning Plan and correspond to the urbanization of the area in which the tourist project will be developed, works that “do not require a building license or environmental report. However, Valbuena disagrees: “It was necessary for the license to be granted that the project had an environmental impact statement.”
The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, announced yesterday that “we are studying the decision of the Council of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands because we have to report on it. We will leave it in the hands of the technicians, the specialists, who are the ones who have to comment on it. We will carry out an evaluation and issue our mandatory report in the coming weeks. I am waiting for what the officials of the Cabildo tell us ».
The promoter announced last week that it is studying to claim the rights acquired by having the mandatory licenses and the City Council warned that each administration must be consistent with its decisions. The employers pointed out that legal uncertainty is generated. Yesterday Salvar la Tejita said that “it is a grotesque spectacle in a state of law to have to hear that compliance with the law puts at risk and is incompatible with certain business models of the construction and tourism sectors that operate in the archipelago ».
The CEST warns of the continued blockade to strategic development
The Circle of Entrepreneurs and Professionals of the South of Tenerife (CEST) “regrets the situation of uncertainty generated around any strategic project that decides to be undertaken on the Island” and warns that “a continued blockade of our socioeconomic development is taking place.” Its president, Roberto Ucelay, who cites the precautionary stoppage of the Cuna del Alma works as an example, assures that “it is disconcerting that a project of this entity, after years of processing, has to go through practically all the administrations and exhibitions to the public , now he is accused of illegalities and a shadow of suspicion covers him ». The case of the Cuna del Alma project “is one of the many that we have suffered in recent years and that generate a loss of credibility towards our system and the development of new projects on our Island.” In his opinion, “it is incredible that after years of administrative processing and innumerable filters and bureaucratic processes, there always seems to be a risk that, at any moment, the initiatives will be paralyzed arguing simple formal questions.” Roberto Ucelay calls on the administrations to make self-criticism, since, as in society, “it permanently generates the shadow of suspicion over all the actions that are undertaken from the public.” Something that “is not healthy for society and produces irreparable damage to our economy.” He recalls that “we chained a radical opposition without weighty foundations to all the strategic projects that are proposed for Tenerife, using the banner of environmentalism when in reality it is about simple political confrontations.” As examples he cites the ports of Fonsalía and Granadilla and the hotel in La Tejita. “We wonder why the voices of ecologists or the political movement that champions the no for no are not heard when we have spent decades destroying the subdivisions, the illegal occupation of the coast or uncontrolled clandestine subdivisions, among others,” he concludes. the president of CEST.
