Four organisations from Santa Cruz de Tenerife recently submitted a memorandum to the City Council addressed to the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez (Canarian coalition), advocating for measures to safeguard the city’s trees situated in the Carnival zones. This request comes as the festivities set to commence on Friday, February 28, including the parade and the first night of dance events, will attract hundreds of thousands of visitors leading up to Carnival Day and the early Saturday of Piñata on March 8. These groups, including “the trees speak,” initiatives.10, The Table of the Tree, and the Toscal of the Tribulations, express concern that numerous significant, mature specimens, some of which are listed in the municipality’s catalogue of unique trees, may suffer consequences akin to previous years without sufficient protective measures in place.
These organisations request the installation of barriers or protective devices throughout the “quadrilateral of Carnival 2025,” which encompasses key locations of the celebrations such as Prince’s Square, Isabel II Square, and the Church of San Francisco, along with several neighbouring streets that become particularly crowded during peak nights, including the two Fridays, two Saturdays, and the Monday. They specifically highlight the detrimental effects of urine and cleaning agents used throughout the year, which tend to intensify during the festivities, cautioning that such substances must not cause harm to the trees or culminate in the alcorques.
Furthermore, they urge the local authorities to utilise “ecological and non-toxic cleaning materials all year round that do not jeopardise the health of individuals or flora, as many trees are becoming desiccated and dying due to these chemicals infiltrating the alcorques and being absorbed by their roots.”
In their endeavour to preserve the green spaces within the municipality—considered one of the largest and most liveable in Spain—these associations stress, “we cannot afford to lose any more trees simply because the City Council fails to implement necessary protective measures during the crowded carnival period.” Additionally, they have expressed concerns that the local government might later justify tree removals, claiming that they were unhealthy as a result of damage inflicted by human waste and the toxicity of cleaning chemicals used in maintaining the streets, roads, and parks of Santa Cruz.
The groups also find it contradictory that during the 2024 edition, significant fines (albeit only one was enforced) were imposed on individuals for public urination during Carnival; meanwhile, no adequate measures have been put in place to shield trees and green spaces.
