The coast of Lanzarote, an environmental paradise pressured by many economic interests

Excerpt from lavozdelanzarote.com

Each year, four kilometers of natural coastline are lost in the Canary Islands due to the construction of ports, hotels, tourist centers, and their associated infrastructure. Lanzarote is the island that has adapted worst to the Coastal Law, despite having had 38 years to do so.

The island of volcanoes has only determined 81.36% of its maritime-terrestrial public domain, almost thirteen points below the regional average, and has delimited 86.73% of its public servitude, which prevents construction in the hundred meters adjacent to the public domain, 8.4 points below the Canarian average. A study concludes that the biggest gaps in adapting the law occur "at the exact points where the hotel industry has the greatest interest".

The worst adapted municipality is Yaiza, with 20 pending kilometers. The tourist town of Playa Blanca came to be the piece of Spanish coast with most illegal hotels.

The research promoted by the Foundation for Nature and the Environment Canarina and elaborated by the Observatory of Sustainability has brought to the table an exhaustive analysis of the reality of the Canary coast, comparing and crossing public data to explain the reality of the archipelago. "The coast is the one suffering the most environmental pressure," the general director of the Canarina Foundation, Anne Striewe, a graduate in Biological Sciences and an expert in Environmental Management, told La Voz.