The Tinerfeña Association of Friends of Nature (ATAN), one of the groups calling for the The Teide Has a Limit demonstration scheduled for this Saturday and finally postponed, has labeled the president of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, as a “would-be dictator” since her corporation is responsible for authorizing events like a protest in Teide.
The convening groups postponed the event after the Government Subdelegation conditioned the corresponding permit on authorization by the Cabildo of Tenerife, a move that environmentalists describe as a “ploy”.
ATAN explains in a statement that the conveners “are forced to postpone the event, despite their willingness to maintain it,” and state that it was a “symbolic” demonstration in the Teide National Park aimed at denouncing the overcrowding and environmental impacts suffered by this protected natural space.
According to the association, the demonstration was intended to be held in a paved area (La ruleta, in the Roques de García service area, currently under expansion works), and in the access road to the National Parador; “in silence, and without occupying a single centimeter of unpaved or unurbanized space.”
“Aside from the plethora of nonsense spouted by the president of the Cabildo of Tenerife, this would-be dictator had the notion to demand the prohibition of exercising a fundamental right, requiring prior administrative authorization, of course controlled by her; not even Meloni had so much imagination and audacity,” says ATAN.
All this, it adds, in a natural space where the Cabildo’s permissiveness for carrying out a multitude of activities unrelated to the conservation of the natural and cultural heritage of the National Park is “the norm.”
The association recalls that last Saturday, May 17, a cycling event was held, organized by the 7 Raid sports club and sponsored by the Tourism and Sports areas of the Cabildo of Tenerife, which had more than seven hundred registered participants.
This cycling event took place on the road through the Teide National Park, so it required the prior report of the Teide National Park Board.
However, ATAN denounces, the Cabildo claims that no authorization was requested from the Cabildo for this activity; however, it was going to proceed to request from the Roads Administrative Service the resolution that sectorally authorizes this activity in the road domain.
In this regard, ATAN denounces that more than two weeks have passed and “we are still waiting for the response” from the Cabildo, “but the truth is that one of those activities referred to in the Cabildo’s statement took place, funded with public funds from the Cabildo, within the Teide National Park, without the mandatory report of the National Park Board, and without the Ministry managing this iconic natural space being aware of these facts.”
For ATAN, the real threat to the park’s conservation is not a symbolic, peaceful, and fully controlled protest but the management model imposed by the Insular Council of Tenerife.
Furthermore, it regrets, the draft revision of the PRUG (Use and Management Master Plan) of the Teide National Park “seems to threaten its interests of maintaining the area as an amusement park.”
On social media, ATAN has also exemplified the numerous recreational, sports, and tourist activities held in the National Park without the president commenting on it. And they recall that more than 12,000 people enter this protected space every day.
Meanwhile, Dávila has celebrated the protest’s suspension.
