An environmentalist has taken to social media to call out Tenerife’s council for what he describes as shameful treatment of Teide National Park which is a Unesco Heritage site.
Director of Fundación Telesforo Bravo Juan Coello, Jaime Coello Bravo, travelled to the highest peak in Spanish territory located on the largest of the Canary Islands which can see 3 million visitors a year and documented the scores of tourists going off designated paths and climbing the protected rock structures of the Teide-Pico Viejo stratovolcano.
Fundación Telesforo Bravo Juan Coello believes the current state of affairs is “unsustainable” and is calling for reforms. Read Jaime Coello Bravo’s below and view the pictures and videos he took during a single visit to Teide National Park.
Jaime Coello Bravo Statement:
How Teide National Park hurts!
This is the graphic summary of this week where you can check how the political leaders of the Cabildo de Tenerife, continue to allow and promote the massification and destruction of what they themselves call, “the crown jewel of the protected natural spaces of Tenerife.”
If this is the crown jewel. How will the other spaces be? We know because most are equal or worse.
It is a scandal and a shame the lack of response, inaction and complicity with an unsustainable situation.
In the pictures, you can appreciate how the San Jose Mines were the other day. The overcrowding of vehicles is indescribable. People getting in off-path and climbing everywhere, too. In addition, we can see people selecting rocks and taking them off-path in another area of the Park, in front of Guajara.
And the answer? Don’t bother looking for her because there’s no one responsible willing to enforce the rules and fix this mess.
Situated on the island of Tenerife, Teide National Park features the Teide-Pico Viejo stratovolcano that, at 3,718 m, is the highest peak on Spanish soil. Rising 7,500 m above the ocean floor, it is regarded as the world’s third-tallest volcanic structure and stands in a spectacular environment. The visual impact of the site is all the greater due to atmospheric conditions that create constantly changing textures and tones in the landscape and a ‘sea of clouds’ that forms a visually impressive backdrop to the mountain. Teide is of global importance in providing evidence of the geological processes that underpin the evolution of oceanic islands.
