“An unprecedented threat in Fuerteventura.” This is how environmentalism defines the project to expand the Corralejo dock, in the north of the island. The new port, promoted in 2020 by the Department of Public Works of the Government of the Canary Islands, requires a budget of 32 million euros and faces strong social rejection. The project includes the installation of four new docks and a commercial esplanade, occupying 33,922 square meters of seawater surface and 30,034 of land area. The work is drawn on a stretch of coast marked by water sports, fishing and the transit of protected species, which is why activism calls it “oversized and unnecessary.” Environmental risks, opacity and contradictions in the reports that have been prepared on the project keep it standby.
At least four technical reports prepared by the regional Executive itself warn of the irreversible damage that this megaport could have on the environment. However, both the environmental impact study, awarded to the controversial company Evalúa Soluciones Ambientales, and an analysis prepared by an institute at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) maintain that the infrastructure is compatible with the space in which it is located. is planned.
Contradictory studies
On December 11, 2020, the Government of the Canary Islands awarded the drafting of the technical project and the environmental impact study for 300,000 euros. The technical project, designed by the company Berenguer Ingenieros, estimates the total execution budget at 32.8 million euros. For its part, the environmental analysis concluded that the infrastructure conforms “to the compatibility criteria of the marine strategy in the Canary Marine Demarcation.” Furthermore, regarding its possible impact on marine spaces protected by the Natura 2000 Network, the document ensures that the action “is compatible with their conservation.”
The study was prepared by the company Evalúa Soluciones Ambientales, directed by biologist Rosendo López and responsible for the environmental analyzes of other controversial projects such as the Port of Fonsalía, in Tenerife, or the Dreamland film city, planned in Fuerteventura and paralyzed by the social mobilization given its proximity to the Corralejo Dunes Natural Park and the amount of water it required. The effectiveness of the reports prepared by this company has been questioned on several occasions. In October 2023, López resigned as president of the Adeje environmental body after it became known that he collaborated at the same time with the promoter of the Cuna del Alma tourism projectwhich is built in the same municipality.
The regional Executive also commissioned the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) to study measures for the conservation of marine biodiversity in the area around the Port of Corralejo. Specifically, the analysis, to which this newspaper has had exclusive access, was carried out by the ECOAQUA University Institute and is signed by the professor of marine management and conservation Ricardo Haroun. The 48-page report concludes that the new commercial dock will not affect the Sebadales de Corralejo Special Conservation Area (SAC) and that the sightings of bottlenose dolphins (a priority species for conservation) and gray pilot whales are “quite distant” of the project’s area of influence. With respect to the impact on sea turtles and, specifically, on the loggerhead turtle (caretta caretta)the text states that “the construction of the new dock […] “It should not represent any negative interaction with this protected species.”
The Clean Ocean Project association, which has already threatened to denounce the expansion of the port before the European Commission, criticizes that this study has not been incorporated into the documentation submitted to public exhibition by the Department of Public Works. Sources consulted by this editorial team consider that this is already a sufficient reason to “knock down” the procedure. Furthermore, they insist that the period of allegations was less than the 30-day period established by law.
The technical reports issued by the environmental body of the Government of the Canary Islands contradict both the study prepared by Rosendo López and the conclusions of the ULPGC analysis. The Biodiversity service of the autonomous community resolved in 2022 that “the proposed expansion would imply, on an already deteriorated environment, an impact of serious and irrecoverable consequences.” Likewise, he emphasizes that the work that Public Works intends to promote will “seriously” affect the conservation of the species that inhabit that environment, among which he mentions the loggerhead turtle or the green turtle, of community interest and protected by European regulations.
In this sense, the document issued by the Biodiversity service adds that these damages would occur in an environment that is already punished. The construction of the current dock brought with it the destruction of the sebado meadows that inhabited the area. For this reason, the environmental body insists that “new damage cannot be ruled out” in the Sebadales de Corralejo ZEC, one of the points “with the greatest floristic and faunal wealth” in the Canary Islands. Another report issued by Biodiversity in February 2023 in relation to this new infrastructure recognizes that the main vulnerabilities of these environments are wastewater discharges, illegal fishing and boat anchoring.
Corrective measures
In November 2021, Biodiversity proposed a series of corrective measures for the project, although it warned that these would not be enough to prevent a serious impact on the Natura 2000 Network spaces and their values. In July 2022, the body gave Public Works a period of three months to correct the errors detected. “If after three months, the substantive body has not sent the requested information, or if once the file is presented it is still incomplete, the environmental body will terminate the ordinary environmental impact assessment,” the document concluded.
In December 2022, according to the documentation consulted by this newspaper, the file had not been corrected, despite having even offered an extension of a month and a half. Now, from the Ecological Transition Department headed by Mariano Zapata (PP), they assure that work is already being done on the Environmental Impact Declaration (DIA). “At this time we are awaiting mandatory reports within the process that have been requested from the corresponding administrations,” they indicate from the area.
The Minister of Public Works, Pablo Rodríguez (CC), already assured in September in the Parliament of the Canary Islands that in July and August 2024 they received “the technical project and the environmental impact study”, and that both documents had been sent to Transition Ecological to continue the DIA. Spokespeople for the Clean Ocean Project organization question the veracity of these statements and maintain that Public Works has not had time to correct all the errors detected in the reports.
The NGO insists that it is necessary to reform the current port due to the poor conditions in which it is located. However, they warn that the proposed project contradicts all the precepts of sustainability demanded by the population of the Canary Islands and for which they will take to the streets this Sunday, in a protest against the overexploitation of the territory and the tourism model. Along these lines, they have delivered to the Pablo Rodríguez area a dossier with different alternatives that avoid negative environmental impacts. However, they claim that they have not received any response.
The City Council of La Oliva, the municipality to which the port area belongs, has already shown its rejection of the expansion through a project that it describes as “megaconstruction.” Along these lines, the Canarian Coalition in La Oliva has demanded a port ”more in line with the island’s model” that covers all current and future needs and demands.
Along these lines, counselor Pablo Rodríguez asserted in the regional Parliament in September 2024 that ”regardless of the expansion of the commercial dock, the Government of the Canary Islands is not going to wait any longer to rehabilitate the bathrooms and services that already exist and that “They are not in optimal conditions for what the island and the port deserve.” From the Public Works area, they respond to this wording that “for now there is no news” about the expansion of the dock. “The project is being analyzed with all affected parties to seek a final agreed solution,” they indicate.
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