The situation of “chaos” suffered by the Parque Nacional del Teide “Due to the excess of visitors and the lack of material and, above all, human resources to preserve it” it endangers its great natural wealth. This denounces the Fundación Telesforo Bravo Juan Coello about the protected space that receives the most visitors from Europe, three million in 2021 and 37 million between 2011 and 2021.
«Government of the Canary Islands and Council of Tenerife They are allowing a very dangerous situation to take place in the island’s natural spaces such as Mount Teide: the most absolute impunity as if it were the Wild West. It is inconceivable that in a state called the first world the rule of law breaks in such an obvious way, “criticizes the Foundation.
The group, very active when it comes to denouncing the violations of the natural spaces of the Archipelago, refers to three events that occurred in the Tenerife National Park that coincided on the same day, last Friday, and that exposed the absolute lack of means to control activities in a space so overloaded with visitors.
According to the Foundation, the 112 emergency services could not answer the call of an accredited mountain guide who required the presence of forest agents or security forces to act against a young man who was driving an electric bicycle through the Park. Nacional del Teide in areas where this practice is prohibited.
The young man not only violated the rules of use of the space, but also responded to the recriminations of the guide with violence, always according to the Foundation. «The cyclist began to yell at him that who was he to tell him anything, that he go to his country, that this was his land and that he did what he wanted here. The guide replied that he is also from here and that since he had become so aggressive he was going to call the Park, so that an agent would come to fine him ».
«It was at that moment that he pushed him and tried to push him down the mountain. He tried to hit him several times, from which he was saved by the people who were with the guide when he got in the way. They still had to put up with it once more when the cyclist sped down, going off the trail, while he insulted the guide and the clients »who had hired him to tour the National Park.
When calling 112, the coordinator who attended to the guide warned him that at that moment there was an accident in the Llano de Ucanca, with a car overturned in an accident in which there were no serious injuries, and another involving a person who suffered a heart attack in a bus in the San José Mines, so they couldn’t send anyone.
“From the analysis of this response, clear and forceful conclusions are drawn about the situation in the Teide National Park,” the Foundation concludes. “It is possible that if the coincidence of circumstances had not occurred, the offender would have been arrested, but we leave it as a possibility because the Park has a minimum staff of environmental agents, so small that they cannot effectively attend to their task,” he qualifies.
In addition, the Telesforo Bravo Juan Coello Foundation clarifies that “despite repeated requests, environmental agents are not integrated into 112, so any citizen cannot request their presence.” «We wonder why the Security and Emergencies Council of the Government of Canary Islands it does not do the apparently simple management of integrating them into 112 ”, he questions.
The group demands that the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo de Tenerife, with powers in the management of Teide, “stop looking the other way” and provide the necessary means to protect a space that is a World Heritage Site.
