ENVIRONMENT - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
Greenpeace activists seize hotel on Spanish coast |
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by sisyphus Guerilla News Network Entered into the database on Saturday, November 19th, 2005 @ 11:07:04 MST |
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Summary: This is the best English language article that I have seen so far on this action
– Greenpeace
España has a more detailed press release for those who read Spanish. Este hotel es el símbolo de la destrucción de las costas. Ninguna
de las administraciones implicadas ha contestado al requerimiento que tanto
Greenpeace como otros grupos han hecho sobre la ilegalidad del proyecto. No
vamos a tolerar el silencio cómplice de las administraciones y no nos
detendremos hasta que la legalidad y el respeto al medio ambiente triunfen –
María José Caballero [Posted By sisyphus] _________________________ By Elizabeth Nash Activists have occupyied a development along Spain's Andalusian coastline
claiming the construction is illegal and environmentally destructive Greenpeace activists have seized a vast hotel under construction on a protected
shoreline near Almeria in southern Spain, saying the project was illegal and
should be demolished. The occupation, mounted before dawn yesterday by about 30 activists, was the
most dramatic action so far in a fierce campaign to halt urbanisation along
one of Spain’s few remaining stretches of untouched Mediterranean coastline. “This is one of the worst urbanistic scandals of the Spanish shoreline,”
a Greenpeace spokesman said. He accused Spanish authorities of conniving to
allow illegal building work. “The project is made possible by the connivance
of all the relevant authorities: the town hall, the Andalusian regional government
and the environment ministry.” The skeleton of the hotel reaches down bare volcanic rock to a beach of spectacular
beauty in the protected area of Cabo de Gata. The 20-storey building, when complete,
is planned to have 411 rooms, and will form the nucleus of a tourist complex
of eight hotels, 1,500 apartments and a golf course. Renowned for the savage magnificence of its terrain and for its aridity, the
region provided a plausible alternative to the Arizona desert for “spaghetti
westerns” during the 1960s. Long shunned for its bleakness, and protected for its unique and fragile desert
ecosystem, this inhospitable area has finally fallen prey to property developers
devouring the Spanish costas. “This is the symbol of the destruction of our coasts. None of the authorities
involved has responded to criticisms by Greenpeace and other groups that the
project is illegal,” said Maria Jose Caballero, the group’s Oceans
spokeswoman, on Algarrobico beach at Carboneras, the site of the hotel. Campaigners want the Andalusian regional authorities to start measures to demolish
the building. But the regional government doesn’t accept that the site
should not be built on. It says the building company obtained a licence to build
before the area was declared a natural park. In addition, the environment ministry
in Madrid has yet to delineate the park area in accordance with the Coasts Law
of 1988 that declares beach areas to be “public domain”. “This is a clear example of the free-for-all that operates on the coast,
where norms of environmental protection are torn up in favour of big speculative
interests,” Ms Caballero said. “We must stop this trend before there
is no beach left.” The building company Azata said the hotel was on municipal land near, but not
in, the national park. Halting work “would have very negative consequences
for the socio-economic development of Carboneras”, Antonio Baena, a spokesman,
said. “Abandoning work for a year or two, which is how long the judicial
procedure would last, would turn it into a hotbed of risk, marginalisation and
delinquency.” He promised the hotel would be “very pretty”. |