Activists chain themselves to an excavator in the works of the Puertito de Adeje tourism macroproject

As the environmentalist Adrián Flores has revealed, after the Police and the Civil Guard left, there were moments of tension in which, as can be seen in a video shared by Salvar El Puertito, the driver of a One of the bulldozers started the machine hitting one of the activists, who quickly ran to the chains of the moving vehicle.

On July 22, a group of people started a camping trip on the farm where the luxury development is planned to be built. Its objective is to demand the paralysis of the project. The protesters criticize the “collusion” of the local public administrations – the Adeje City Council, the Tenerife Island Council and the Government of the Canary Islands – with the promoters given that since the processing began, a series of “regulatory breaches” have been recorded that affect the natural and cultural heritage.

However, this has not meant the stoppage of the works that began last May, although there are unfavorable reports from the Cabildo de Tenerife -November 18, 2014 and May 12, 2017-.

The protesters also indicate that the project’s environmental report, approved in March 2019, “was not technically and professionally rigorous” and does not even detail the impacts on the eight protected plant species in the planning field, as well as the threatened common stone curlew. , a species whose protection status requires the protection of its habitat. In this report, in addition, “any impact on the adjacent marine environment is denied,” they point out.

They recall that as a result of a complaint from the Tegüico cultural association, the Cabildo made a report in five weeks that gave rise to the precautionary suspension of the works upon detecting serious patrimonial infractions, but it limits itself to recommending the fencing of the affected area and ruling out carrying out a comprehensive study.

In addition, they highlight that Puertito de Adeje has a natural and cultural wealth that is “unique” in Tenerife, the Canary Islands and in the Middle Atlantic, “because it is an enclave of enormous geological, geomorphological, botanical, faunal, marine, archaeological, ethnographic value. and historical”.

They indicate that the project represents “the tip of the iceberg of an outdated economic model that only causes dependence on tourism and loss of competitiveness of the sector itself, loss of agricultural land and food sovereignty, unemployment and poverty”, plus environmental, landscape damage and heritage.

This model, they underline, “clearly goes against the new parameters that are pursued at the global level to achieve sustainable development, fight against climate change and achieve the Millennium Goals.”

“Very serious” infraction after destroying Guanche vestiges

The Territorial Planning and Historical Heritage Directorate of the Cabildo de Tenerife issued a resolution that maintained the precautionary suspension of part of the works of the Cuna del Alma urbanization, in the Puertito de Adeje area, due to the partial destruction of remains archaeological. In fact, the president of the insular institution, the socialist Pedro Martín, recognized at the end of June that a “very serious infraction” was committed in the works by failing to comply with the protection of vestiges.

The promoter of Puertito de Adeje informed Canarias Now that, despite this stoppage, work was resumed on 98% of the plot, given that the partial maintenance of precautionary measures by the Cabildo affected only 2% of the works. Thus, the company assured that “it has complied with all the administrative procedures, guaranteeing that its execution complies with the law” and they hoped to be able to continue with the rest of the work “as soon as possible”.

However, Sixto Domingo García, president of the Tegüico Heritage Association, which filed the complaint that has led to the precautionary stoppage of the works at Cuna del Alma, already explained that “they know that there are quite a few archaeological sites in that area.” Throughout the southern part of the island, but especially where this luxury development will be located, there are remains such as stone engravings, structures such as cabin bottoms and surface material, such as ceramics, shell middens or obsidian, he explained. Regarding the relevance of these vestiges, he was blunt: “For us, anything in the Guanche world is fantastic.” Therefore, he says he does not understand that whoever carried out the initial inspection “did not take this finding into account.”

It should be remembered that Cuna del Alma is a macro-tourism project that is intended to be built in a ravine and a beach in the south of the island next to two protected areas, one land and one sea, and provides for an urbanization of some 430,000 square meters with more than 400 luxury villas, hotels, restaurants, swimming pools, beach clubs, spas, and other infrastructure such as an orchard whose extension (20,000 square meters) invades part of the Adeje Protected Nature Reserve Site of Scientific Interest, according to the published project plans by the promoters, two Belgian investment families (Vandermarliere and Van Biervliet) with “a strong portfolio of real estate projects, both in Belgium and internationally”, the group highlighted the day the start of the works was staged (although the works have been running for some time).

Protest this Friday at the Adeje City Hall

Salvar La Tejita and Salvar El Puertito convene a rally this Friday, July 29, at the Adeje Town Hall, starting at 11:30 a.m., to protest the resumption of works in the Puertito de Adeje. These works are described by the organizers of the demonstration as a true “environmental disaster”, perpetrated with “impunity” on the southern coast, due to the works of the Belgian luxury macro-project Cradle of the Soul.