underwater gardens tenerife rejected

Underwater Gardens Tenerife rejected insular interest

Underwater Gardens rejected by Tenerife Cabildo

The Tenerife Cabildo announced this Wednesday that it has refused to grant the ‘Parque Regenerativo Underwater Gardens Park Tenerife’ status as a project of insular interest, meaning it cannot proceed. The decision blocks a large-scale commercial initiative to develop a regenerative park at Punta Blanca, within the Teno-Rasca Special Conservation Zone, a project that environmental groups had already warned was not as sustainable as claimed. The aim had been to combine educational and conservation activities with ecological restoration, alongside a complementary offer linked to the sea and nature.

Decision in favour of Tenerife’s natural heritage

Island president Rosa Dávila signed, by delegation of the Plenary, the decree proposing the denial of the insular interest designation for the project, officially named ‘Parque Regenerativo Underwater Gardens Park Tenerife’. “This decision on a project proposed for the coastline of Guía de Isora is taken considering that the proposal presented no longer responds to the grounds that motivated its declaration of insular interest in 2022, and will be submitted to the Plenary for ratification, following a hearing for the developer,” stated the Cabildo’s governing group.

Dávila announced the decision at the start of the weekly government council press conference. “This is a decision in favour of Tenerife; in favour of our natural heritage and the model of island we want to build,” she maintained, arguing that the Teno-Rasca Special Conservation Zone is “one of the spaces with the greatest ecological value in the Canary Islands and Europe,” “an exceptional environment that cannot be replaced or imitated,” and “whose preservation forms part of our responsibility as an institution.”

From regenerative vision to recreational focus

One must go back to 2022 to understand the subsequent path. The initiative was declared a project of insular interest at that time due to its strategic nature for diversifying Tenerife’s tourist offering and its direct link to scientific research, environmental education, and the regeneration of marine ecosystems. “However, during the processing of the file, substantial changes have been noted with respect to the proposal that served as the basis for the declaration of insular interest,” the Cabildo now states.

According to data provided this Wednesday, the Cabildo required the developer to reconfigure the project to comply with current regulations, “eliminating the planned actions on rustic land for environmental protection and concentrating development on common rustic land, always maintaining the regenerative nature that justified the insular interest of the initiative.” Following this, the Tenerife corporation considers that the documentation finally submitted does not meet these requirements. “Furthermore, the project lacks the necessary scientific authorisations to carry out the marine regeneration actions that constituted the central element of the proposal,” it adds.

In more detail, the resolution highlights that there is a “direct and inseparable relationship” between the planned actions on land and the scientific and environmental restoration activities proposed in the marine area. “Without the execution of the latter, the facilities intended for scientific outreach, research, biodiversity, or diving-related activities that formed part of the original concept of the regenerative park lack justification,” the Cabildo indicates.

As it stands, the island institution concludes that the proposal has evolved towards a model centred primarily on recreational and leisure uses, moving away from the research, conservation, and environmental regeneration objectives that motivated its declaration of insular interest. It also states that the project incorporates certain uses incompatible with this territorial planning designation. “The decision is taken after four years of administrative processing and after repeated requests to complete and adapt the required documentation,” the Cabildo emphasises, with its president also dwelling on the “technical and legal rigour” that has governed the administrative procedure.

Vice-president: ‘What was born as scientific has been distorted’

The vice-president of the Cabildo, Lope Afonso, appeared alongside Dávila and highlighted that the project of insular interest “is confined solely and exclusively to the land side located on common rustic land, within what we know as Garden Gate.” He added: “In any case, it is a project that cannot be understood without the marine side, as both are intimately related,” and recalled that it was “a strictly necessary and unavoidable requirement to have the authorisation and technical and legal viability for both the maritime part and the coastal protection rustic land.”

The island vice-president summarised: “What was born with the vocation of being a scientific and sustainable regenerative park has been distorted until it became a recreational facility, with no real connection to environmental regeneration.”

Environmental groups celebrate ‘definitive brake’

The 34 environmental and sports groups that make up the Salvar Punta Blanca platform celebrated this Wednesday’s decision and hope it means the “definitive halt to the macro tourist project in the Teno-Rasca marine strip.” “This is a victory for collective struggle. We hope the president of the Tenerife Cabildo truly listens to the citizens and puts a stop to other eco-cidal projects, such as the Motor Circuit or the expansions of airports, ports, and roads that it intends to launch. Today, collective and legal struggle wins,” declared Salvar Punta Blanca in a statement.

Dávila clarified that “this decision also reflects a way of understanding the development of the island.” She insisted: “We want investment, employment, innovation, and economic activity. But we want projects that are compatible with the territory and coherent with the model of Tenerife that we defend.”

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