The controversy continues over the expansion of the Rasca Special Nature Reserve, in Arona. The statements made to this newspaper by the president of Asaga, Ángela Delgado, describing the measure as an “outrage” for the agricultural sector by affecting, she assured, vineyard, banana and avocado farms, have ignited a political and social debate after the The plenary session of Parliament unanimously approved last week to process a bill to expand the limits of protection by 80%, going from the current 312 hectares to 557.
The director of the Regulatory Council of the Abona Denomination of Origin, Manuel Rodríguez, yesterday supported the arguments of the president of Asaga and asked that “sticks not continue to be put in the wheels” of the new Abona wine projects and regretted that the expansion of the reservation is made through the urgent procedure, as well as the lack of a reference to the existing plantations in the statement of reasons for the proposal.
In his opinion, “not only 10% of the grapes are at risk, but probably the first wine tourism project that sought to differentiate itself by having the sea, the volcanoes and the vineyard hand in hand.”
At the opposite pole is the Tenerife Association of Friends of Nature (ATAN), which has expressed its “total and resounding support” for the expansion of the reserve in the face of “predatory urbanism” and as it is a “historic demand from the world scientist, the environmental movement and the defense of the heritage of Tenerife”.
ATAN recalls that the extension of the protected area has had the unanimity of all the political groups of the Arona City Council and the Parliament of the Canary Islands and wonders “why Asaga has not ruled with the same rejection and forcefulness on the Singular Structuring Operation of tourist nature that the Tenerife Island Plan provides for a large part of the area that is intended to be protected, and that would only serve to cover an area of extraordinary value with cement”.
In addition, the environmental organization requires the Cabildo to “comply with its powers” and enable the necessary surveillance means, in collaboration with the Arona City Council, to prevent the deterioration of this space as a result of the “lack of control and acts of vandalism that have been producing with respect to the natural and archaeological heritage”.
