The impact of the commodification of land and neoliberalisation of natural resources in Tenerife

October 23, 2022

In recent times, the interest in nature has been increased since academics and scientists from various fields stress that the globe has failed to reverse the biodiversity decline, because the value of nature has not been fully recognised and it is still treated as an object under the law.

Tenerife island is an interesting place to study this aspect of political geography as it has been exploited for many years, through intense urbanisation, infrastructure construction and groundwater mining, to a point that the impact on the landscape and natural resources is evident, now more than ever, and in some cases, irreversible.

So, after visiting the island last June and experiencing all the above in person, I felt the need to write this blog post.

NEOLIBERALISATION OF NATURE 

Harvey and Marx have stressed the implications that nature, as a public good, could have in the city system many years ago. More specifically, Harvey argued that there are elements within the city system which cannot be measured and this can potentially affect a city’s economy. He called these elements imperfections and nature, being a public good, belongs to this category too. Being a public good signifies that an element is non-excludable and therefore, it cannot be traded in the market nor calculated. As a result of this, based on Marx’s theory of value, these elements often tend to suffer exploitation, since they are raw materials with no-value in the monetary system.  

Fast forward to the recent years, given the fact that in the last 40 years 52% of the global population of all species has been extinguished, according to the WWF’s living planet index, due to intensified development and growth, it would be fair to assume that both Harvey’s and Marx’s beliefs are still relevant today. It is evident that climate change is upon us and the ecosystems around the world are in great danger.  

As a response to the exclusion of nature from the economic calculations, which usually led to its exploitation, it was thought that it would be good to include it instead and give it an economic value. In other words, the future of nature was left to the hands of the market forces and eventually, the commodification of this raw material continued. As expected, this did not halt the environmental destruction, but, on the contrary, it gave a whole new identity to the element of nature, redefining it as natural capital since it could now be traded. More specifically, it gave the opportunity for strategies like green grabbing to arise which involve the appropriation of land and resources in the name of ‘sustainability’, ‘conservation’ or ‘green’ values.

This neoliberalisation of nature is a fact and for the last three decades neoliberal policies and ideologies have brought changes to nature-society relationship across the world creating serious environmental conflicts and injustices, such as the withdrawal of policies for the protection of ecosystems and species. To make things worse, those efforts intensified after the 2008 global financial crash proving that nature remains one of the main sources of wealth and plays a key role in capital accumulation. After 2008, the neoliberal policies facilitated the loss of green public spaces, places and natural ecosystems to bring forward large infrastructure projects, urban development and gentrification projects. As Marx highlighted, nature is being exploited under the neoliberal justification that economic development and growth are necessary and they are the only ways to overcome recession.

ISLANDS TREATED AS COMMODITIES – THE CASE OF TENERIFE

Islands across the globe are immensely affected by the neoliberalisation of nature, as they suffer from the commodification of land and natural resources due to touristic activities and urbanisation.   

This should not come as a surprise though, as the islands are amongst the most profitable spaces for tourism and real estate investment; especially the ones located in close proximity to large centres in the mainland. In general, islands are very attractive for multiple reasons. From an economic viewpoint, they offer cheaper land, labor and natural resources optimising capital investments, whilst due to their unique setting and clearly defined boundaries, they are seen as ideal places to relax and distance yourself from the civilisation and the hectic lifestyle that the mainland is associated with.

Therefore, the islands located in close proximity to large economic centres are the ones that receive the most pressure in terms of development at the expense of the natural environment, real estate, production and export of plantation crops, extraction of mineral resources and so on, and this is also the case of the Canary Islands, and Tenerife in particular. The island has gone through an intense urbanisation, since the touristic boom in the mid-20th century, making this region the third preferred Spanish destination for foreign tourism in 2019 (Frontur 2020) with tourism activity accounting for 35% of the GDP (Exceltur 2018).  

Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands located in centre-eastern Atlantic near the African continental coast. At the beginning of the 1960s till 1973, it experienced an extraordinary growth in touristic activities which ended in the year of the oil crisis, whilst the second tourist boom was between 1985 and 1989. Later, between 1997 and 2006, Spain witnessed a housing boom and additional growth which only became possible because of the liberalisation of land, supported by political actors. From 2003 onwards the international real estate expansion began resulting in an increase in the tourist supply as well as the construction of homes, second homes, apartments, luxury villas and development of infrastructure and megaprojects.

The 2008 global financial crash profoundly affected the Canary Islands too. As a result of this, Spanish and regional governments focused on tourism as the only way to overcome the crisis by implementing liberal policies to ‘unlock’ even more land, until then partially protected, aiming to expand development and thus boost tourism. Large pieces of rustic land were transformed into urban areas. Overall, the neoliberal recipes including land deregulation, reduction of state control in environmental and territorial planning or decentralisation of power to more local administrations resulted in the intensification of the processes of commodification, privatisation and financialisation as the main principles to support the circulation of capital.

SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF TENERIFE

This brief mention to the liberalisation of nature and the potential consequences on the landscape and setting of the islands helped shape the theoretical background onto which the spatial analysis of Tenerife will now be developed.

Protected land and unprotected land. Tenerife is divided into two distinct areas which can be easily told apart by the untrained eye. The protected land is the place that hardly changes, surrounded with beautiful nature and rich vegetation, where pace becomes slower. The protected land mainly includes the area around El Teide, the north-eastern corner of the island, Anaga and the western corner, Teno, as well as some lands to the north-west, south and east.

On the other hand, the rest of the island holds no protection and thus, the environment is more dynamic as it constantly changes and transforms. In particular, in the last decades the unprotected land has suffered intensified development and growth due to touristic activities. This lack of protection, in planning terms, has played a significant role in any decision regarding the development of the transport infrastructure as well as the general growth and urbanisation of areas in the island. 

Los Cristianos and the Benijo village are two extreme examples that represent each one of the above worlds and they were specifically chosen here to help me describe these two quite distinct atmospheres that can be experienced in the island. 

Los Cristianos. An all-inclusive area that offers a plethora of choices for any age group. Some of the reasons that this area, and its surroundings, is one of the first choices for tourists is the proximity to the Airport South, only 15 km distance away, and the TF-1 highway. The latter allows for immediate connections to surrounding villages, beaches and El Teide. In addition to this, the topography is relatively flatter compared to other areas, for example to the north, which offers better climate and less extreme weather conditions. Lastly, there is a variety of facilities and amenities that operate throughout the day to serve the needs of the population. 

For these reasons, and many more, this area attracts a great number of tourists throughout the year and thus, it is no real mystery why the intensified urbanisation mainly takes place around this area. In principle, people, no matter how different they are between them, have similar patterns and the majority is attracted by the same things and follows similar trends. In this case, it is the convenience that this location offers that makes it an ideal destination for holidays. 

However, there is also the other side of the story. This intensified urbanisation has created issues that affect the everyday life and a person’s ‘real’ experience of the area. More specifically, traffic congestion, limited parking spaces, car dependance, blocked views to the mountains or the sea, limited pedestrian permeability and legibility, as well as soil sealing are just some examples.

Figure 1. View of Los Cristianos area where the intensified urbanisation across the waterfront and the inner landscape is evident.

Benijo village. Tacked away into the mountains to the northern part of the island, the Benijo village is located along the coast offering unblocked views towards the ocean and the cliffs alongside the beachfront. This village is surrounded with nature and rich vegetation, whilst houses are scattered along the meandering rural lanes. This village is mainly residential, however, there are also some restaurants servicing the locals and visitors. In terms of accommodation and convenience stores, there are none, but there are options at nearby bigger villages.   

The wild landscape and the fact that the village sits within a protection zone, have attracted limited infrastructure in the area which explains why the natural environment is so well preserved. On top of that, the meandering narrow lanes, the high altitude, the extreme weather conditions and the lack of visibility due to fog or rich vegetation create practical difficulties making places like this less ‘appealing’, to the majority, when it comes to choose for a place to stay during holidays, compared to places like Los Cristianos.

Figure 2. View to Benijo village where the wild landscape and nature prevail over any artificial development.

Transport infrastructure in the island. The road network consists of the main highways, TF-1, TF-2 and TF-5, which run through a large part of the island offering immediate connections to many areas, mainly to the north, north-west, east and south. When TF-1 and TF-5 were put into operation in the 70s, they only covered small parts of the island, starting from Santa Cruz, however, throughout the years they were extended further to the west and south to meet the increasing demand. These extensions led to the further development or even creation of new villages on the island. In particular, the TF-1 only connected Santa Cruz to Candelaria during the mid 1970s, whilst in 1978 a new extension to the new southern airport supported the creation of new villages to the south-east coast, like the small holiday resort of Abades and also led to the future touristic expansion of Los Cristianos expanding to Las Americas. In the 1990s, the TF-1 was extended to Arona and in 2001 to Adeje leading to further touristic development to those areas. Lastly, in 2015, the motorway was extended from Adeje to Santiago del Teide offering shorter travel distances from the mountain towns to Adeje, Playa de las Americas, Los Cristianos and the south airport. 

The opening of the new airport to the south played an important role in the current development of the eastern and southern areas in Tenerife which are now the most touristic parts of the island. However, the timing of the opening was not random at all; it was decided in response to the tragic 1977 event that took place at the Tenerife North-Ciudad de la Lagune Airport which was one of the largest accidents in aviation history with the highest number of fatalities. The location for the airport to the south was specifically selected to avert the occurrence of fog which was one of the reasons for the crash at the northern airport. 

However, whilst the new airport unlocked opportunities for more development, it also affected the highway network which currently suffers from increasing traffic, as it was initially designed for a time horizon of 25 years and a traffic intensity of 22,000 vehicles per day. Today, the population has increased from 400,000 inhabitants to 1,050,000 people and 850,000 vehicles which inevitably generates a lot of pressure and mobility problems. 

From the highways, a great amount of extremely meandering roads branch out offering connections to villages and more remote locations. This, more rural, street typology is very characteristic of the island and it owes it to the topography. These streets are quite challenging when driving, usually offer very little options to destinations, as normally one road only leads to one or two villages and then you have to take the same way back to return, however at the same time they offer spectacular views towards thr ocean.

Another street typology, mainly found in the urbanised areas, is the more orthogonal streets with suburban characteristics. The layout of these streets offers a good level of permeability and it is more formal compared to the meandering lanes found in the more rural areas. 

THE UNPROTECTED LAND IS UNDER GREAT THREAT

Whilst the protected land would be the number one area to raise great concern, in terms of further protection, in this case, it is the unprotected land that is under multiple threats which are presented below:

Overloaded road infrastructure. The urbanisation of the island has grown unsustainably over the years leading to a high number of cars and therefore, traffic congestion. In Tenerife, there are almost as many motor vehicles as there are registered inhabitants. The existing network of highways, which initially had a deficit for 25 years, cannot cope with the increased population and movement, especially between the capital and the south. Many proposals are discussed, on a government level, with one of them being the ‘tren del Sur’ scheme which aims to alleviate the traffic issue, whilst benefiting the environment, across the eastern side of the island including a railway line linking Santa Cruz with the south of the island via Tenerife South Airport. The scheme however, although planned and designed, has not been yet commenced.     

This increased vehicular mobility on a daily basis has an important impact on parking as well. In particular, the most populated places suffer from lack of parking provision, whilst the urban sprawl, as a phenomenon, has led to an increased car-dependance. This, combined with the fact that public transport is not well established in the island and the lack of parking regulations, creates a chaos on the streets, both for drivers and pedestrians. Car park management could be one of the tools to tackle the issue or establishing car parks outside busy areas like Santa Cruz to encourage people to leave their car and take public transport. 

Regarding the south of the island, the excessive urban sprawl of hotel complexes to the hilly landscape, the increasing car-dependance and the lack of parking provision in new developments, all together deteriorate traffic congestion and create an unpleasant environment for both pedestrians and drivers. For example, personally, I remember getting off from TF-1 into TF-481 to enter the Avenida de Espana heading to my hotel. Avenida de Espana is a beautiful street of narrow width allowing one-way traffic with large pavements on both sides and green verges with flowers and street trees, whilst the sloping topography towards the sea offers evolving views along the streetscape. It almost sounds like the ideal place, however, in reality, the amount of traffic along the street creates a noisy and stressful environment.

Urban sprawl, which was already mentioned multiple times before, is defined as the development of low-density expansions of large urban areas, usually at the expense of the surrounding agricultural areas. Those areas are often unstructured and amorphous generating issues like increase in the temporal and spatial distance between people’s places and work, leisure, education etc. As a result, these places tend to become less walkable, and thus, encourage the dependance on private vehicles. 

Blocked views towards the landscape and nature. One of the unique characteristics of this island is the breathtaking views towards the mountains and the ocean which are generated due to the hilly topography. Scenic routes offer many viewpoints for the drivers, whilst small and larger settlements located around the island overlook the ocean and back the mountains. As a pedestrian, you can walk along the narrow lanes and appreciate the long-distance views to either direction. These views, however, due to the intensified urbanisation, are either blocked or they are treated as commodities carrying a price tag. For example, unobstracted views from hotel balconies or terraces of restaurants can skyrocket the prices for the services.

Visual impact of new development. Apart from blocking the views towards nature, the urban sprawl has one more visual impact on the environment. More specifically, the bright colours used for the building facades detract from the otherwise earthy background that the mountains offer, failing to successfully integrate the new development into the environment. The result can be seen, unfortunately, from distance. For that reason, new developments located further within the mountains, should use a local vernacular similar to the one found in other existing mountain settlements. A great example is Masca village where properties are sensitively set within the mountains using pastel (yellow, ochra, dark orange) renders or local stones for the facades, red clay tiles for the roofs, whilst rich vegetation decorates the rest of the plot.

Figure 3. View towards Masca settlement where properties are sensitively set within the landscape and rich vegetation.
Figure 4. View towards Los Gigantes area where the multi storey hotel to the background creates a constrast with the lower density in the front of the photo and the general landscape.

Soil sealing. The intensified urbanisation and infrastructure construction have been the main causes of soil sealing which itself could lead to land degradation, fragmentation of landscape and the risks of fires. Soil sealing is defined as the covering of the ground by a waterproof material to an extent that the soil is no longer able to perform the range of functions associated with it. 

Groundwater mining exploitation. Tenerife island has suffered from intensive exploitation and continuous consumption of groundwater reserves. Groundwater abstraction causes significant outflow of groundwater to the sea due to the young volcanic coastal formations. More specifically, this outflow has produced a groundwater depletion of about 2km. Should the current groundwater abstraction cease, the recovery time to close-to-natural conditions is from decades to one century, except in the mid and high elevations of Tenerife where this recovery is not possible as aquifer formations will remain permanently drained by the numerous long water galleries.  

FINAL THOUGHTS

From a touristic and financial viewpoint, it is plain and simple. Tenerife island is being exploited to the fullest and it is branded as the ideal place to spend your holidays in complete isolation, low cost and great climate all year long. This island offers the best from both worlds; the civilisation, on one hand, where there is a plethora of options to meet the needs of any age group (families, couples, teenagers, retired couples etc.) and the wild side, on the other hand, the ideal place for nature lovers, cyclists, hikers, surfers etc. Both worlds are located so close to each other that one does not even have to choose between, since it is possible to get a taste from both of them within an hour drive. In addition to this, distances between places are short, since the island is relatively small, which gives the opportunity to visitors to get a good understanding of the island’s setting, different villages, character and architecture within a few days’ time; ideal for a tourist that wants to see it all in a limited amount of time.  

However, it is also worth looking at the other side of the coin: All this branding and exploitation, at the expense of what? What is being lost in the process of continuously trying to meet the tourist demand in Tenerife?   

The intensified urbanisation in the island during the last 50 years has led to a fragmented, visually but also physically, landscape. The constant process of construction of large infrastructure projects threatens both the protected side of the island, as well as the unprotected, and while the former has a level of protection over it, the latter does not. The landscape is altered and existing systems, like transport infrastructure, cannot cope with the increasing population leading to additional issues.

The neoliberalisation of land, promoted by the government, has left the unprotected land exposed and the call for help is real. The ‘right to the city’ coined by Lefebvre and Harvey is more relevant now than ever or as more recent academics have put it, the ‘right to nature’ (Cortes-Vasquez and Apostolopoulou) and the ‘right to the island’ (Clark). The concept of the ‘right to the city’ argued for a better relationship between the city and the countryside and against the privatisation and commodification of the public space to avoid class inequalities.

In general, the exploitation of land and nature is not something new, but it has been remarkable after 2008. The ‘right to nature’ is seen, as Apostolopoulou and Adams describe it, as the ‘right to influence and redirect the urbanisation processes, promoted by capitalism, which could lead to a radical transformation of nature-society relationships under non-capitalists logics in order to achieve social-environmental justice, whilst reducing the global ecological footprint.’ 

In the same way, Clark (2013), argued about this right placing it in a more concrete framework of the islands criticising the ‘adoption of standardised socio-economic models of island development claiming the right to the island as a means to reinforce the social and political processes aimed at a fair and sustainable island development.’  

In other words, these goods that Harvey used to call imperfections, nature above all, need to have a proper weight in the political, planning and design decisions. Nature needs to be better valued by reversing the structure of law that treats it as an object and giving it a place in the governance system.  

All in all, governments and planning parties should stop carving out protection levels through legislation. Instead, natural resources and land should by default be considered sacred, whilst the acceptable levels of human activity should be continuously assessed to make sure a dynamic balance between earth and humanity is maintained and secured.  

References for images:

  • Figure 1: https://www.leggotenerife.com/46554/il-porto-di-los-cristianos-e-tra-quelli-con-il-piu-alto-traffico-di-passeggeri-in-spagna/
  • Figure 2: https://dailytravelpill.com/playa-de-benijo-tenerife/

References of books and papers:

  • Alejandro Armas-Diaz, Fernando Sabate-Bel, Ivan Murray and Macia Blazquez-Salom (2021): Beyond the right to the island: Exploring protests again the neoliberalisation of nature in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain), https://www.erdkunde.uni-bonn.de/archive/2020/beyond-the-right-to-the-island-exploring-protests-against-the-neoliberalization-of-nature-in-tenerife-canary-islands-spain
  • Apostolopoulou E., William M. Adams (2019): Cutting nature to fit: Urbanisation, neoliberalism and biodiversity offsetting in England, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718517301483
  • Apostolopoulou E., William M. Adams (2014): Neoliberal capitalism and conservation in the post-crisis era.
  • James Fairhead, Melissa Leach & Ian Scoones (2021): Green Grabbing: a new appropriation of nature?
  • Apostolopoulou E. & Jose A. Cortes-Vasquez (2019): The right to nature, Social movements, environmental justice and neoliberal natures.
  • Clark E. (2013): Financialisation, sustainability and the right to the island. In: Journal of Marine and Island Cultures 2 (2), 128-136.
  • Lefebvre H. (1968): Right to the city.
  • Harvey D. (2012): Rebel cities. From the right to the city to the urban revolution.
  • Marx K. (2013): Capital.

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