The Canarian environmental federation Ben Magec-Ecologistas en Acción has lodged complaints and expresses its “profound disapproval” of the Underwater Gardens marine theme park initiative in the Guía de Isora region, which has been declared of insular significance by the Cabildo of Tenerife.
“It is unacceptable that amidst the current conditions of the islands, with a significant majority of the public demanding an end to the degradation of our territory, institutions continue to endorse an outdated model that imposes completely unsustainable pressure on our ecosystems,” the organisation emphasises.
Underwater Gardens, touted as a venture “centred on marine regeneration and sustainability,” in the view of the environmental organisation, represents an “excessive occupation” of protected rustic terrain.
The project encompasses infrastructure including a meditatorium exceeding 2,000 square metres to “enhance the connection with being,” a museum entitled aquademy spanning 3,463 square metres, alongside over 3,000 square metres designated for swimming pools, desalination facilities, and dining establishments.
Overall, the project accounts for over 18,000 square metres of construction on rustic land that caters to interests that are “clearly speculative and entirely disconnected from the sustainability that both the developer and the Cabildo of Tenerife have attempted to promote.”
Environmentalists contend that this theme park, which anticipates attracting 3,000 visitors daily, incorporates a marine area within its recreational offerings designed to provide “unique experiences of communion with the sea and nature,” which, in reality, amounts to “touristic and lucrative exploitation” jeopardising a protected marine environment, specifically the Special Conservation Area (SAC) of Teno-Rasca, renowned globally as the “only sanctuary” for whales within the European Union and one of the richest areas in protected marine species throughout the Canary Islands.
They also point out that the proposers intend to create artificial underwater gardens to mitigate the ecological impact caused by human activity and encourage visitors to become “sea gardeners” or “eco-sensitive divers.”
“At Ben-Magec we question how the consequences of human activities might be alleviated by purposefully generating human activity in a space of unique sensitivity, thereby disrupting it and drawing in no fewer than 3,000 people daily,” they state.
“Speculative endeavour”
They describe this as “a clear example of greenwashing of a speculative initiative labelled as regenerative and sustainable, which the Cabildo of Tenerife has designated as of Island Interest, thus again misusing public institutions to favour private interests.”
In their view, “these kinds of projects, disguised under the guise of sustainability, actually contribute to unsustainable anthropogenic strain, as the influx of tourists and construction in areas with high biodiversity disrupts their equilibrium and depletes the resources we strive to protect.”
Furthermore, they stress, “we once again caution against the inappropriate utilisation by island institutions of the designation of island interest which, rather than being employed for its true intent — the provision of infrastructure for the public good— is being misappropriated and turned into a swift means of approving private tourism ventures, devoid of any actual planning and without any genuine consideration for local residents, benefiting solely their promoters.”
