Environmentalists within the Canary Islands are sounding the alarm over the injury tourism is doing in Teide Nationwide Park, residence to Spain’s highest peak.
Jaime Coello Bravo, director of the Telesforo Bravo-Juan Coello Basis, known as out the Tenerife Island Council for selling what he described because the “massification and destruction” of the park, which can also be a UNESCO World Heritage Website.
In a submit shared on social media on 13 April, Bravo stated the park “hurts” from the variety of vacationers trudging over its landscapes. He additionally shared pictures and movies of tourists straying off designated trails and climbing volcanic rock formations.
“If that is the crown jewel [of Tenerife’s natural sites]. How will the opposite areas be? We all know as a result of most are equal or worse,” he wrote. “It’s a scandal and a disgrace the dearth of response, inaction and complicity with an unsustainable state of affairs.”
Teide Nationwide Park welcomes over 3 million guests a 12 months
Situated within the centre of Tenerife, Teide Nationwide Park surrounds the Teide-Pico Viejo stratovolcano, which rises 3,718 metres above sea stage and provides sweeping views of the environment. These views, the hanging volcanic landscapes and the distinctive wildlife such because the Tenerife lizard entice about three million guests every year.
Based on the native tourism board, the park is essentially the most visited nationwide park in Europe. However its reputation is placing stress on a fragile ecosystem.
Bravo’s pictures confirmed a crowded automotive park, vacationers clambering over volcanic rocks and one girl showing to gather stones from a restricted space.
“The overcrowding of autos is indescribable,” he stated.
A brand new reservation system goals to scale back overcrowding
Simply days earlier than Bravo’s posts, the Cabildo de Tenerife (Island Council of Tenerife) revealed a brand new on-line reservation system aimed toward controlling entry to extra superior trails throughout the park.
The brand new system would require guests to register on-line earlier than trying sure climbing routes, together with the paths that result in the summit of the stratovolcano.
Entry will solely be granted to authorised tourism professionals and mountain federations with correct permits and security gear.
The objective, in keeping with officers, is to “protect the pure surroundings and management the inflow of individuals”.
Can Europe’s pure landmarks deal with mass tourism?
The state of affairs in Tenerife echoes issues raised in different components of Europe, the place native ecosystems are beneath pressure from excessive customer numbers – and native populations have typically lashed out in response to them.
In Italy, officers in Venice have launched – and now doubled – an entry price forday-trippers to ease overcrowding within the historic metropolis, whereas the island ofSardinia has begun banning seashore towels and requiring superior bookings to go to sure seashores.
Residents in common journey locations, from Amsterdam to Santorini, are more and more pushing again in opposition to the detrimental results of tourism. In early April, residents throughout Spain stagedprotests in opposition to mass tourism, lower than a 12 months afterBarcelona residents sprayed vacationers with water weapons and shouted “vacationers go residence”.
Tenerife has seen its personal blunt response to mass tourism, too.
Final April, demonstrators in Tenerife organised a starvation strike over resort developments. Some locals stated they have been sleeping in automobiles or caves as a result of they couldn’t afford housing on the island.
Now, the Telesforo Bravo-Juan Coello Basis is urging the federal government to take stronger motion to guard Teide and different pure areas throughout the Canary Islands.
With summer time approaching, indicators level to a different tense season as Spain grapples with how – and what number of – individuals ought to expertise its pure wonders.
