A popular march in defense of the Cabo Cope-Calnegre Regional Park covered this Saturday the distance between the residential area of Calabardina and the defensive tower from the 16th century in protest against the project of a camping ‘resort’ in the protected space, which has a conditional authorization from the Ministry of Public Works and which is currently undergoing the environmental evaluation process, as reported by LA VERDAD.
Convened by ANSE, WWF and Ecologistas en Acción, a crowd of people carried protest banners demanding that this alleged tourist facility, promoted by the Marjal group from Alicante, not be built, and at the same time demanding the approval of environmental regulations for the regional park : both the Natural Resources Management Plan (PORN) and the Comprehensive Management Plan required by the European Commission due to its status as a Site of Community Interest (SCI), and therefore of the Natura 2000 Network.
The regional park was declared in 1992 and in these three decades the environmental regulations that delimit the economic activities allowed inside it have not been approved.
The protest has also been supported by the citizen and conservation organizations Naturactúa, Espartaria, Club Senderista de Lorca, Ambiente Europeo, Plantamos Bosque, Cope is not for sale, Save Cope-Calnegre and Association for the defense of La Azohía and Isla Plana.
These groups demand that, once the Constitutional Court prevented the construction of the Marina de Cope resort in the regional park in 2012, the regional Administration “assumes its obligation to restore the ecological integrity of the protected space” and “put a stop to the intensive agriculture” and “other real estate projects that continue to threaten it”.
As this newspaper published, Fomento granted an “exceptional” authorization in February for the change of land use in the regional park, at the request of the Águilas City Council, for the construction of a campsite with 300 plots, a restaurant, swimming pools and sports areas in front of to the Cope tower, a historical building protected as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC). The Ministry of Culture issued a report in which it only required a distance of 150 meters from the tower.
The ball is now in the court of the Ministry of the Environment, Mar Menor, Universities and Research, which must determine whether this infrastructure is compatible with the protection of the natural values of the regional park.
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