The Bill on the expansion of the limits of the Malpaís de la Rasca Special Nature Reserve, which was approved by the Parliament of the Canary Islands on February 15, will protect the agricultural uses that exist in that area of the Tenerife municipality of Arona .
The Minister of Ecological Transition, the Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands, José Antonio Valbuena, has explained that in this way greater protection will be achieved for the activities that take place in this natural resource since it avoids, in case that this land be reviewed in the future, its reclassification as urbanizable, which will allow agricultural activities to continue to be maintained.
Valbuena emphasizes that in this protection the natural elements are intimately linked with an agricultural activity that allows the strengthening and recovery of the natural values of our land.
In addition, with this new regulation, legal certainty is provided to already existing activities. Thus, the counselor advanced that in the future it will be necessary to carry out a Master Plan for Use and Management (PRUG) like those existing in the rural parks of Teno and Anaga, areas where agricultural and residential activities coexist with the natural elements of the space.
The Law Proposal undertakes the extension of the protection from the southern limit of the El Pal-Mar Urbanization, extended from the west to the coast and following it in a southerly direction to the current limit of the Reserve in Caletón de los Goros. In turn, to the east, the limit is extended to the TF-66 road, and following it in a southeasterly direction until an agricultural track that, in a southwesterly direction, connects with the current limit of the Reserve.
The main value of the Malpaís de la Rasca is the geomorphological structure of the entire malpaís and the adjacent cones, as well as the existence of a coastal and inland cardonal-tabaibal habitat with numerous endemic elements.
