The promoter of Cuna del Alma appeals to resume construction work on this luxury development in Puertito de Armeñime, on the Adeje coast. The company Segunda Casa Adeje SL announced yesterday the presentation of an appeal against the resolution of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Fight against Climate Change of the Government of the Canary Islands which denied authorization to move the specimens of a plant, the sad viborina, to another location and thus guarantee its preservation.
The Ministry responsible for territorial planning, led by the socialist José Antonio Valbuena, ordered on the 11th to paralyze all the works in Cuna del Alma due to “imminent threat” of environmental damage to protected wild flora. The regional Executive adopted this determination by ensuring that it had verified the presence of the sad viper (Echium triste) on the land affected by the project and denied the promoter’s request to move the specimens of this herbaceous plant to another place.
Segunda Casa Adeje SL alleges in its appeal that the Cabildo de Tenerife It is “the competent body” to decide on the translocation of the snake since 2002 and “not the Government of Canary Islands». Likewise, the company points out that, “according to the law, since 2010 the municipal environmental body is competent to resolve on the translocation or change of location.”
“The law authorizes the translocation of this type of species when it is a public work of general interest,” says the promoter in a press release, which continues: “In this case, in this project the urbanization roads that are are being built are municipally owned and include a regional road and regional pipes for a wastewater treatment plant, desalinated water or wastewater already treated and suitable for irrigation. Therefore, the promoter defends that this project should be considered as a work of public interest.
The company recalls that the Ministry “has granted authorizations to translocate viborina for public works in other locations, such as Arona in 2021, in identical circumstances.” The promoter describes the refusal to transfer specimens of this species “as unjustified, disproportionate and arbitrary.” She concludes that if this request is rejected, “it will proceed to go to the Courts of Justice.”
harsh criticism
The stoppage of work on this urbanization of luxury villas and hotel rooms in an extension of more than 430,000 square meters of the Adejera coast has provoked harsh criticism from the economic sectors of Tenerife as it occurred after the promoter obtained all the permits from the competent administrations –the regional Executive itself, the Cabildo de Tenerife and the Adeje City Council– and will place the first stone in an official act on May 5.
On May 31, the Insular Directorate of Historical Heritage of the Cabildo de Tenerife cautiously suspended the works in an area that represents 2% of all the land of the project due to the destruction of an archaeological site, which is why the Canarian Government opened a sanction file. On November 11, the Ecological Transition order from the regional Executive arrived to stop all work when specimens of the sad viper were detected. And on the 23rd, the Canarian Agency for the Protection of the Natural Environment, also from the Canary Islands Government, initiated a disciplinary file against the promoter for lacking the project’s mandatory environmental impact assessment.
A botanical report commissioned by the Cabildo de Tenerife limits the presence of the sad snake plant to 8,605 square meters, 2% of the 437,000 covered by the Cuna del Alma tourism project. The promoter will request that it be authorized to resume works on 96% of the land without any damage.
