The Malpaís de la Rasca Special Nature Reserve will have a surface area of 557.12 hectares (5,571,200 square meters). once the Plenary of the Parliament of the Canary Islands approves, this Wednesday (February 15), the Proposition of Law by which it will add 244.42 hectares to the current 312.7. The expansion includes from the El Palm-Mar Urbanization, it continues west to the coast and following it, heading south, to the current limit of the reserve in Caletón de los Goros. To the east, the limit grows to the TF-66 highway (Guaza-Las Galletas) and from here, in a southeasterly direction, to an agricultural track that, in a southwesterly direction, connects with the current limit of the Reserve.
Currently, The closest population centers are the Palm-Mar urbanization, to the Northwest, and the Fraile neighborhood, to the East and somewhat further away. The marine zone adjoining the terrestrial space forms part of the Sebadales Marine Special Protection Zones in the south of Tenerife and the Teno-Rasca Marine Strip, both included in the Natura 2000 Network.
The Law Proposal takes into account that the expansion will integrate, in addition to natural areas that have been little or not altered by human activity, others that have undergone modifications (breakdowns), but that are to a greater or lesser extent in the phase of environmental recovery.
The extension of the limits of the Special Natural Reserve of Malpaís de la Rasca was presented by the parliamentary spokespersons Nayra Alemán (Socialist Parliamentary Group), Luis Campos (Nueva Canarias Parliamentary Group), Manuel Marrero (Sí Podemos Canarias Parliamentary Group) and Casimiro Curbelo (ASG Parliamentary Group).
Close a 2018 file
In June of last year, José Julián Mena, mayor of Arona, formally asked the Government of the Canary Islands to promote, before the Parliament of the Canary Islands, an initiative that would allow the approval of the delimitation of the Special Natural Reserve of Malpaís de Rasca. With this, the file opened in 2018 in this regard would be concluded.
Mena pointed out yesterday that “the approval of this law is a milestone not only for Arona, but for the entire Canary Islands.” He defends that this is so because “it means extending the protection to the whole of an enclave that has a high environmental, ethnographic and geological value and that is one of the few undeveloped areas of the southern coast of Tenerife. With the law we protect Rasca from urban pressure.
The new law determines that, from its entry into force and within the territorial area of influence of the Malpaís de la Rasca, all urban planning licenses subject to the Law on Land and Protected Natural Areas of the Canary Islands are suspended, as well as construction, building and land use.
In that same period (the first year of validity of the new delimitation), The Government of the Canary Islands has to prepare and approve a Natural Resources Management Plan for the areain which the cartographic delimitation and parcels are adjusted.
The year following the approval of this Plan for the Management of Natural Resources in the area, the Council of Tenerife is obliged to draft and approve the new Master Plan for the Malpaís de Rasca Special Nature Reserve, according to the third transitory provision of the Law proposal that today will be addressed by the Parliament of the Canary Islands in its plenary session.
