Gran Canaria: Tourists having sex on Spanish beach is destroying it

Published:Dec 7, 202310:11
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(CNN) — Overtourism is commonly blamed for choking historic cities, protecting world-famous sights in trash, and killing native life in vacationer hotspots the world over. Now vacationers having sex is stated to be behind the gradual destruction of a beach and nature reserve in Europe.
The Dunas de Maspalomas Special Nature Reserve, on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, is recognized for its wild sand dunes rippling out behind its lighthouse perched on the seafront, and commonly tops the lists of issues to see on the island.
Its dunes -- which have been legally protected since 1982 -- are one of many final remaining shifting dune techniques in Europe, present a resting spot for birds migrating between Africa and Europe. But now it's offering a unique type of relaxation spot, with vacationers taking to the dunes to get frisky.
A brand new paper within the Journal of Environmental Management -- "Sand, Sun, Sea and Sex with Strangers, the 'five S's. Characterizing 'cruising' activity and its environmental impacts on a protected coastal dunefield" -- appears for the primary time on the environmental affect on the coastal reserve getting used as a cruising space.
Researchers inventoried 298 "sex spots" on the beach, over a complete space of over two sq. miles, primarily amongst "bushy and dense vegetation" and nebkhas -- dunes that wad up round vegetation. They studied them throughout May 2018, a interval which included the native Gay Pride competition.The vacationers' sex, and "cruiser trampling," impacts "directly" not solely on the nebkhas, but additionally on eight native plant species, three of that are endemic, they discovered.

Sex 'nests' within the dunes

The dunes at Maspalomas are a top draw on Gran Canaria.

The dunes at Maspalomas are a high draw on Gran Canaria.Giulio Andreini/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Tourists trample over the vegetation, take away crops and sand, make their very own "nests" -- even fencing them off -- and dump waste together with cigarettes, condoms, rest room paper, wipes and cans. They additionally use the dunes as a bathroom, with researchers discovering "urination and defecation locations." The more distant the sex spot is, the more it had been used and the more trash was left in it, researchers seen. Although the authorities depart trash baggage in a number of the bigger areas, they have been usually full.Even the dunes' "exclusion zone" -- which is utterly off-limits to the general public, the place different areas are restricted -- was discovered to have 56 sex spots.As a results of the vacationers' actions, there was a "complete abandonment" of environmental training within the reserve, in keeping with the research. The reserve was initially created with training as a "primary activity."

What's more, Gran Canaria large lizards -- a preferred sight within the Canary islands -- have "died after eating condoms left behind by pleasure seekers," wrote Patrick Hesp, one of many report's authors, in an article for The Conversation.

Hosting as much as 14 million guests a yr, Gran Canaria is a gay-friendly vacationer vacation spot, with guests from the US, UK and Germany among the many major markets, and whereas the authors are fast to emphasise that there is "no intention to criticize some of the LGBTI community," and confused that it was not simply LGBTQ guests having sex within the dunes, they word that "cruising is openly practiced" on Maspalomas.Coastal dune techniques are a vital a part of the marine panorama, however have been used to draw tourism around the globe -- with devastating penalties, the authors write."Their degradation, in many cases, has been a direct consequence of tourism development," reads the paper. As Hesp wrote in his separate article: "We're not calling for an end to public sex -- but we do want people to be aware of the damage it can do."One couple having sex on the beach, he wrote, is one factor; however having tons of converge on the identical space every single day damages the dunes as a lot as off-road driving does.



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