El Rincón, Space of Autonomous Disinterest

In those years in which many of us were prohibited from going to Los Patos, a story of encounters and disagreements, of ideals and realities began to take place around the little agricultural space that still remains in The Orotava “from sewers down,” as they used to say. El Rincón occupies ten kilometers of coastline with 70-meter cliffs and 200 hectares of agricultural land where banana trees predominate. In the late eighties and early nineties there was an important social movement against the city council’s intention to urbanize this area. The echo of this protest led by the Popular Coordinator in defense of El Rincón arrived at Parliament of the Canary Islands through a Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) in order to achieve its classification as a protected space. In 1992, the Special Law of El Rincón was published, finally declaring it a Protected Agricultural Zone.

In its third article, the Law establishes that this organization be carried out through a Special Management Plan which is prepared in the five years following the publication of the Law and which establishes as its primary objective the maintenance of agriculture as the main economic activity. To meet this objective, a public body is created that will be in charge of managing the actions in the agricultural space area and that has representatives of the Government of the Canary Islands, Cabildo de Tenerife, La Orotava City Council, the Owners’ Association, the Neighborhood Association and the El Rincón Coordinator – Ecologists in Action. Up to this point, anyone could think that this is a historical milestone in terms of the best way to preserve a unique environment in a coordinated manner where all agents should feel satisfied with the achievement of joint work, but the reality is quite far from this idyllic context.

The truth is that no less than 31 years have passed since the approval of that famous Law and the results in the management of this space take us almost back to the starting point. It is true that a space has been preserved, but what has happened to the guidelines of a Special Plan that sought to convert this environment into a place of sustainable development with viable alternatives for the owners? The Plan included such innovative elements as the possibility of combining environmentally friendly tourist activities with school farms or hostels, the benefits of which would be shared among the owners of the agricultural holdings. What has happened to the improvement of accessibility beyond the famous Los Patos staircase, the creation of a circulation ring, a pedestrian path, the promotion of agricultural activity, support for the marketing of products and a long etc. of actions foreseen in the Plan of ’97?

Fun facts

In search of answers to these questions, I begin to investigate and browse through published news and I come across data that is at least curious, such as, for example, that the Consortium met only four times between 2019 and 2023, that there is a manager who did not meet. knows its functions well or that there are drafted projects that sleep the sleep of the righteous waiting for someone to make the decision to execute them. But far from looking for blame, because we must remember that in the Consortium everyone is represented, from public administrationseven neighborhood associations, owners, environmentalists, etc., I prefer to investigate the reasons why this situation has arrived and how it can be reversed.

Toño Sánchez is one of the members of the Coordinator in defense of El Rincón and is also part of the Consortium. He was one of the promoters of the awareness campaign that led to this initiative brought to Parliament. For Toño, the solution to Rincón involves the application and execution of the actions of the Special Plan and gives as an example the need to execute the mobility plan that orders the traffic chaos that occurs in the area and that has been accentuated with the performance on the steps of Los Patos. He attributes the neglect of these years to the administrations involved since they have the majority in the Consortium and are the ones who have to make decisions and “it is clear that there has been no will policy to develop the Plan. The approach of some owners to modify it when it has not even been applied is absurd, also taking into account the economic cost and effort involved in its drafting. The problem is that most of the owners who complain have not even read it.

For Sánchez, the role of the Consortium is very important because “we are all represented and we can reach agreements without having to cross some red lines that we are clear about.” Those red lines that the representative of the Coordinator talks about have to do with actions that are planned and that do not comply with the ideals of the Plan, such as the execution of a path that “should rather be called a promenade from the beach from Bollullo to Los Patos because it exceeds the dimensions of what a path as such should be.

Sánchez also demands greater investment in agricultural development for the preservation of productive land that allows self-sufficiency and suggests that the owners of abandoned farms “sublet them to the Consortium so that it in turn can make them available to interested farmers because we “There is a clear interest among many young people in devoting themselves to organic farming and this would be a great option.” In this sense, the representative of the Coordinator is clear when stating that “the planning of the territory is above private property and this agricultural space must be preserved for the general interest.”

«The protest spirit of the Coordinator is still latent despite the time that has passed and will continue to do so because on numerous occasions it is the neighbors themselves who call us to inform us of some actions that have been carried out outside the Law and we will always be there because they do not “Only laws protect things, it is people who must also do so,” Sánchez concludes.

At the head of the owners association is Miguel Ángel Gonzalez from Chaves which makes a negative balance of these thirty years of inactivity of the El Rincón Consortium in which it has participated as a member for two years. «People’s lives change a lot in thirty years, but in El Rincón everything remains the same without taking into account the interests and demands of those of us who live or work there. In these years, two streets have been paved, streetlights have been placed and signage has been installed, without forgetting the famous staircase that, far from helping, has caused greater chaos in traffic in the area. The entire budget of the Consortium remains in the manager’s salary and in plans that are entrusted to the public company Gesplan but that are then not executed.

Regarding the 1997 Plan, the owners demand its review because the time of inaction that has elapsed has shown that it has not been a useful tool. “If at this time we are in the same position, it is because it is an inefficient document and it will have to be modified to make it truly useful.” For González de Chaves, one of the main problems comes from the Plan’s own guidelines, which sometimes contradict the current Land Law and in that case the administration opts for the easiest way, which is inaction, and those who are harmed are always the owners. that we are in a situation of absolute defenselessness. “We cannot compete under the same conditions as farmers elsewhere and we have not received any compensation for this inactivity, as indicated in the Plan.” This situation is causing a strangulation of the sector that will lead to the abandonment of the farms because “it is not true that there are waiting lists of farmers interested in producing under these conditions through this sublease system.” In this sense, Miguel Ángel is forceful with his response to these Coordinator’s options: “We love to tell the neighbor what to do in his house, but in yours you don’t want anyone to decide.”

For the representative of the neighbors, the solution also involves a profound renewal of the members of the Consortium because there are many entrenched problems and reaching agreements with a turbulent background is becoming increasingly complex. In the case of administrations, renewal occurs every four years and now the Department of Territorial Policy is in charge of coordinating the operation of the El Rincón Consortium. To this end, they have announced the launch of an electronic headquarters to maintain telematic file control of the management carried out by the entity. In the press release of last September 22, a new stage is announced in which “the administrations will work hand in hand to value and enhance the particularities of this enclave of La Orotava”, to add that “the roadmap passes for facing the current challenges of the space by promoting its values ​​and making the different uses compatible with the coordination of the agents involved, where the public company Gesplan plays a predominant role in completing the adaptation and updating of the El Rincón Special Plan. Valuing the particularities, facing current challenges, making uses compatible and coordinating the agents involved, that’s nothing. Here’s to another thirty more years!