La Tejita campaigners welcome start of protected land restoration after years of dispute
The environmental association Salvar La Tejita has announced that developer Viqueira has finally begun restoring land within the protected maritime–terrestrial public domain (DPMT) at La Tejita, in the south of Tenerife, following a long-running conflict over works carried out without the required authorisation.
According to the group, Tenerife’s Provincial Coastal Authority confirmed that recent earthworks observed in late December and throughout January correspond to the company’s obligation to return the terrain to its original state.
This requirement was issued in April 2024 by the Directorate General for the Coast and the Sea in Madrid, which ordered a halt to construction and the reinstatement of affected land.
The restoration focuses on a five-metre-deep pit excavated in 2019 in a dune system covering around 3,600 square metres. Activists argue that the developer was fully aware of the area’s potential classification as public domain and accuse the company of attempting to eliminate the dunes to advance its hotel project.
Environmental groups have staged several protests on the site, some of which led to fines against participants and organisers. They maintain that demonstrators were sanctioned despite warning authorities that the developer lacked valid permits to build on public coastal land.
Salvar La Tejita says that, although it welcomes the start of the reinstatement, it considers it unfair that Viqueira has not faced penalties for what it describes as deliberate harm to publicly owned natural space. The association insists that only a full restoration of the dune field, extending from La Tejita beach to Playa del Chinchorro, without fencing or construction, will be acceptable.
The group has again called on Granadilla de Abona council to intervene, arguing that the ongoing hotel project is incompatible with the landscape and will never be completed, as 16% of the plot (equivalent to 196 planned hotel beds) cannot legally be built on according to the Directorate General for the Coast and the Sea.
In 2026, Salvar La Tejita will undergo the second expert evaluation in its administrative case challenging the hotel’s building licence. This process will scrutinise alleged violations of coastal boundaries and the absence of a compliant wastewater treatment system.
The association further maintains that the project conflicts with EU Environmental Impact Assessment Directive 2011/92/EU, as amended by Directive 2014/52/EU, which regulates the evaluation of developments with potentially significant environmental effects.
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