The curious white stones, which rombran the beach of bass of the donkey, on the island of Fuerteventura, are not such stones. They are Rodolitos. Remains of calcareous algae, which live in the seabed, are pink and roll at the mercy of the currents, and thus acquire that characteristic globose form. They have a very slow growth, a few millimeters per year and the smallest are dragged to the shore creating that whitish landscape that from a few years to this part and by the mor of social networks, attracts thousands of tourists to see that natural show, which now call the beach of Las Palomitas. So far.
The bad thing is that many are not worth only the photo for memory, but they want to take a handful home. It will be said that by a handful, nothing happens. But many stabs of the thousands of tourists who go to those beaches annually can be a real looting of something that has needed many years to develop and is part of the ecosystem. And there begins the problem. So much so that in the Fuerteventura airport kilos and kilos of these corals are seized. Which has forced the island authorities to implement measures to avoid these subtractions and replenish the rholites on the beaches.
Enjoy and leave in place
It is an example, extreme but real, of what happens if tourists do not apply where the principles of sustainable tourism go. They try to reduce negative social, economic and environmental impacts to the maximum impacts in the destinations visited. And that is an individual decision.
Established by the World Tourism Organization, they adapt to any destination and in Spain all the responsible tourism guides prepared by the different public administrations in the recommendations to visitors are collected.
On the environment, apart from reducing the consumption of water, energy and containers, they all affect the same: respect wild life and natural habitats, not introduce invasive species or take or acquire protected flora or fauna or products derived from them. Summarized all this in trying to leave behind a minimum footprint.
Fuerteventura are the rodolites and somewhere else they can plants that attract attention. But «although it seems harmless, flowers, seeds or fruits from countries outside the European Union should not be brought in the suitcase. We do not know if that vegetable carries a harmful organism and, therefore, cause damage, ”explains Laura Hernández, head of the plant health service of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Alerting this risk is the objective of the third campaign #Planthealth4Life of the European Food Security Authority (EFSA), which in Spain promotes the. MAP.
“We must be aware of the role we have to protect our plants and ecosystems in front of possible pests,” warns the expert. In fact, it is forbidden to do so and could be sanctioned.
The message that the campaign launches is that instead of bringing a cutter or a flower or an exotic fruit, “it is better to wait to return from the trip, search and buy it inside the EU to a professional operator that guarantees that this material complies with all the European regulations of plant health, accredited by the phytosanitary passport.”
And, if the purchase “we do it through the Internet, it is mandatory that they provide us with that phytosanitary passport that accompanies plant products in their movement by the EU and accredits that they are free of pests.”