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WILDFIRES

Spanish firefighters gain upper hand against Tenerife fire

Spanish firefighters were gaining the upper hand on Tuesday in their battle against a wildfire raging for a week on the holiday island of Tenerife that forced thousands of people to flee, officials said.

Published: 22 August 2023 14:09 CEST
Spanish firefighters gain upper hand against Tenerife fire
Spanish firefighters gain upper hand against Tenerife fire. Photo: CESAR MANSO / AFP

About 600 firefighters and soldiers backed by 22 water-dropping planes were battling the blaze, which broke out late August 15th in an area of steep ravines and cliffs in the northeast of the island, part of Spain’s Canary Islands archipelago off the northwestern coast of Africa.

Officials said cooler overnight temperatures and weaker winds had helped firefighters fight the flames, which have so far burned nearly 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres).

“This has not ended, but we are starting to see the end of the tunnel,” the archipelago’s head of emergencies, Manuel Miranda, told a news conference in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the island’s capital.

The fire, which now has a perimeter of around 88 kilometres (55 miles), forced the evacuation of over 12,000 people, but officials said some from the villages of Arafo and Candelaria have been allowed to return to their homes.

READ ALSO: NASA warns Spain could soon reach 50C 

The head of the local government of Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, said officials were considering allowing more evacuees from other villages to return home shortly.

“We are looking to return to normal, little by little,” she told the news conference.

During a visit to Tenerife on Monday, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said his government would classify the areas affected by the blaze as disaster zones, a move which will trigger emergency subsidies and other support measures.

The blaze broke out after the archipelago suffered a heatwave that left many areas tinder dry.

The Canary Islands typically experience spring-like temperatures all year, but temperatures have recently soared to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some parts.

READ ALSO: Are Spain’s wildfires a risk to people’s health? 

The seven-island archipelago is located off the northwest coast of Africa and southwest of mainland Spain. At their nearest point, the islands are 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Morocco.

As global temperatures rise due to climate change, scientists have warned that heatwaves will become more frequent and more intense.

Last year, Spain suffered more than 500 blazes that destroyed more than 300,000 hectares, making it the worst-hit country in Europe, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

So far this year, it has had 340 fires, which have ravaged almost 76,000 hectares, EFFIS figures show. 

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TOURISM

Tenerife to start charging tourists to access natural parks

Amid environmental and housing pressures, authorities in Tenerife will soon begin charging tourists a so-called 'ecotax' to access natural parks, starting with the protected Masca ravine area.

Published: 30 May 2024 09:55 CEST
Tenerife to start charging tourists to access natural parks

The President of Tenerife’s Cabildo government, Rosa Dávila, announced on Wednesday that the first pilot scheme in the so-called ‘ecotax’ on the island will begin this summer for visitors to the Masca ravine area.

The idea is to charge tourists, defined as non-resident, for access to natural and protected areas. The small fee, the amount of which is still yet to be decided, will be accompanied by improvements to environmental security and bolstered local infrastructure in the area.

The Masca ravine, in the Teno rural park, will also reopen its jetty, which has been closed since 2018. Masca is one of Tenerife’s oldest and most breathtaking hiking routes, culminating in the Los Gigantes cliffs on the coast.

At a press conference, Dávila indicated that a three-way agreement will be signed between Buenavista council, the municipality to which Masca belongs, Puertos de Tenerife, and the Cabildo.

READ ALSO: Mass protests in Spain’s Canary Islands decry overtourism

In theory, a daily limit of 275 visitors will be implemented (Spanish media report that the annual capacity is estimated to be around 100,000) but tourists and non-residents will not be forced to take any particular route or itinerary and can travel freely to the area themselves or through tourist companies. However, bus services will be used to better regulate access to the site.

Dávila also suggested that the publicly-owned company Tragsa will handle the tourist charge, pending a decision on a wider ‘ecotax’ entrance fees for other natural areas across the Canary Islands. Fees for other natural areas of the island are set to be charged from January 1st 2025.

With regards to the cost, Dávila pointed out that “we are working on the analysis of the economic impact” and added that “we had anticipated that the Cabildo would cover the cost for residents of Tenerife”, which confirms that any entrance fee or ‘ecotax’ will only be levied on tourists and non-residents and that locals won’t have to pay it.

This comes amid bubbling anti-tourist sentiment in Tenerife and the Canary Islands. Concerns about the over-touristification of the islands, which causes environmental and housing pressures, has led to several protests in recent months.

READ ALSO: ‘The island can’t take it anymore’ – Why Tenerife is rejecting mass tourism

A proliferation of short-term tourist rental properties, particularly in the post-pandemic period, has priced many locals out of their own areas.

The ecotax, however, is not a flat tourist tax in the traditional sense, and right-wing parties on the islands previously rejected the idea of a tourist tax.

Catalonia and the Balearic Islands both charge holidaymakers tourist taxes, often tacked onto hotel bills. Spain’s Valencia region was also planning to until the right-wing government now in power revoked the law early in 2024.

However, measures approved by the Canary Parliament in April were to charge an entrance fee to visit Tenerife’s key sites and natural spaces, like at Masca, as well as not giving up any more land to hotels and other tourist complexes.

This comes after tens of thousands of protesters took the streets of all eight Canary Islands and European cities such as London, Berlin and Madrid in April under the slogan “The Canary Islands have a limit”.

READ ALSO: Why does hatred of tourists in Spain appear to be on the rise?

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