“Only five Environmental agents – or Forestry agents because they are the same – cover the 189 square kilometers of the Teide National Park.” A year later, this is a very similar headline to an article from EL DÍA published on March 13, 2023. Furthermore, “the main issue in the largest protected natural area in the Archipelago is the lack of surveillance due to insufficient personnel to carry it out.”
Ayose Molina Tacoronte (Gáldar, 1982), president of the Association of Forestry and Environmental Agents of Canarias (AFMACAN), affirms this. Graduated in geography from the ULPG, he has been an Environmental agent in the Cabildo de Gran Canaria since 2014. He praises the fact that Tenerife has announced 17 positions, which will be available imminently, but he states that “the Island would need another 40 to reach the national average of 12.6 agents per 100,000 inhabitants.” The minimum required ratio.
Molina highlights that: “Among the various public administrations that have forestry agents in Canarias, 146 out of the approximately 200 positions created are filled. This translates to 6.6 agents per 100,000 residents, well below the national average of 12.6 per 100,000. Tenerife specifically has 60 filled positions out of the 82 created, equating to 6.3 agents per 100,000 residents. Much better than the ratio in Gran Canaria, likely with the worst figure in the country: 2.6 agents per 100,000 residents.
The Cabildo de Tenerife has created those 17 positions, already announced, which, as Molina explains, “will allow them to enhance surveillance, custody, and protection of natural resources.”
Flowering on Teide / Arturo Jiménez
The Teide Volcano
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Regarding the Teide National Park, he argues: “With only five Environmental Agents, it is impossible to provide all services in pairs and even less to cover absences or holidays 365 days a year.” He estimates that “at least 16 more would be needed, simply to cover shifts and ensure the provision of emergency services.” With almost 190 square kilometers and over four and a half million visitors (the most visited in Europe), “even with that proposal, it would be very difficult to cover everything, even less so with the current provision of human and material resources.”
Ayose Molina believes that “an increase in personnel from the Environmental Agents Corps is essential.” On the one hand, “to deter or prevent activities that may constitute an environmental violation,” and on the other hand, “to be able to identify the alleged perpetrators of the acts and report to the competent authority, administrative or judicially, so that they can be held accountable and minimize the sense of impunity that surrounds the violation of environmental regulations.” He considers that this should go hand in hand with campaigns for information, education, and environmental awareness, aimed at the resident population and tourists, focused on raising awareness about the value, fragility, and uniqueness of biodiversity, geodiversity, ecological processes, archaeological sites, etc., that make up the natural and cultural heritage of Canarias, a unique heritage in the world.
Molina believes that “more than a lack of knowledge of regulations, there are other factors that influence infractions in the protected natural area.” On one hand, “ignorance of the effects of certain activities on flora, fauna, or the landscape, as well as the importance that these natural resources have from environmental, cultural, social, and economic perspectives”; on the other hand, “the lack of personnel to cover very extensive areas, in different shifts, throughout all 365 days of the year.” He adds to this “the sense of impunity surrounding infractions, especially in the case of foreign tourists.” He emphasizes “the absence of a European regulatory framework that forces offenders to pay the imposed fines once they return to their countries.”
“In Teide alone, 16 more staff would be needed, solely to cover shifts.”
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Day to day Operations
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The Environmental agents of the Teide National Park work shifts from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm or from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, except during the summer period, when it is from 2:00 pm to 9:00 pm. During these shifts, the president appreciates, “colleagues try to prevent the commission of environmental violations that affect the natural area; among others, those related to the access and circulation of bicycles and motorcycles on trails, fires or unauthorized use of fire outside designated areas; unauthorized filming in areas of high ecological sensitivity, the use of drones that pose risks to birds, etc.”
Furthermore, within the National Park, there is a “serious issue of communications, as the Environment agents are not integrated with the rest of the island’s operation.” This is indicated, “despite the competencies being delegated to the island Corporation and even though two of the agents assigned to the natural area belong to the Cabildo itself.” This represents “a risk factor in the face of conflictive interventions or civil protection emergencies such as a forest fire or a missing person alert.” Communications “are a basic tool to provide a prompt response to any dangerous situation, for both visitors and the agents themselves.”
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Penalties
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Regardless of the police force that intervenes, the one who issues fines is “the competent body of each of the public administrations.” The acting agents are limited to reporting the complaint. The Environment agents are officials endowed with the character of law enforcement officers. They are assigned functions of special administrative police and specialized judicial police in the environmental field. They are obligated to report to the authorities any events that may be considered an infringement of current regulations, administrative or criminal.
Hazards
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“We are exposed – Ayose Molina reminds us – to risks both in the performance of our environmental police functions when dealing with citizens who react aggressively; as well as in operations as part of the intervention and security group in civil protection emergencies.” As happened in the major forest fire in Tenerife last year that affected a dozen protected natural areas.
Especially, he points out, “when, due to lack of personnel, actions are carried out individually, something that is practically impossible to see in any other police or security force and contradicts any logic in terms of occupational risk prevention. On the other hand, there is “the territory in which we work.”
Away from urban areas, with a rugged topography and with the health effects that high mountains can have, in extreme environmental conditions or due to adverse weather phenomena in areas with poor or no communication coverage…”. Risks that, in case of an accident, complicate the response. He appreciates the devices put in place by the Tenerife Cabildo in Teide, Anaga, and Teno with the Canary Islands Police: One can only speak positively, especially considering the lack of staff assigned to the surveillance, custody, and protection of these areas, the high population density of the island and the numerous floating population that visits these protected natural areas.”
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Access
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The forest agent understands that “given the shortage of personnel, reducing the number of accesses to the Park – a measure that the Cabildo aims to implement from January 1, 2025 – would help improve control and surveillance of the area to some extent,” but, he concludes, “it would still require an increase in agents to ensure that those restricted or excluded areas are not accessed or occupied by visitors.”
