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Inadequate enforcement of planning regulations in the tourism hotspot has put the sun-drenched islands on the brink of an ecological disaster.
15:40, Tue, May 26, 2026 Updated: 16:15, Tue, May 26, 2026
The surge in hotel building threatens to destroy the islands' natural beauty (Image: Getty)
The Canary Islands have seen growing protests over the past few years. Resentment has been growing among locals, who say the boom in tourism to the sun-drenched Spanish archipelago is unsustainable. They cite outdated rules that enable speculators to buy up land for hotels and holiday apartments, whilst only paying minimal tax.
As a result, Canarians say they earn the lowest average wages in Spain and struggle to find affordable housing. But now they have another grievance against tourists. The islands are experiencing coastal erosion at a staggering rate. Activists say the Canary Islands’ coastline is on the brink of disaster.
Every year, according to a report from SOS Costas Canarias, some 2½ miles of coastline is lost. Anne Striewe, the foundation’s director, says that hotels, apartment blocks, housing developments and marinas, among other buildings, are being built on this “lost” land.
The organisation warns that across the eight islands, around 18% of the land within the first 500 metres from the sea has already been developed. Outside protected natural areas (PNAs), this percentage soars: it exceeds 40% on several islands and coastal stretches, peaking at 43% in Lanzarote and Gran Canaria.
Almost 20% of the living space on the Canary Islands is devoted to tourism – compared to roughly 4% on the Spanish mainland. Five municipalities on the Canaries have more tourist beds than permanent residents: Yaiza (Lanzarote), Pájara (Fuerteventura), Mogán (Gran Canaria), San Bartolomé de Tirajana (Gran Canaria) and Adeje (Tenerife).
Thousands have taken to the streets to protest against the excessive numbers of tourists (Image: Getty)
Ms Striewe points out that, in addition to holiday accommodation, there is a mass of tourist-related infrastructure such as access roads, golf courses and desalination plants, which do not appear in hotel occupancy statistics but are part of the same issue.
Sharon Backhouse, director of GeoTenerife, told Sky News that the Canary Islands are a "biodiversity jewel in the Atlantic,” but local government offers few protections for the islands’ natural habitats.
She said that every year more "beautiful landscapes are cemented over" to build new tourist resorts.
She added: "The problem with these resorts is that we just don't have enough resources in terms of water, what happens to all the rubbish, how is it all recycled.”
Carmelo Javier León, director of the UNESCO Chair in Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPCG), says that there’s a battle between people who want to preserve the islands’ natural beauty and “the development of ever more accommodation options.”
Loopholes in planning regulations have enabled the destruction of miles of coastline (Image: Getty)
The authors of the SOS Costas Canarias report are calling for an immediate moratorium and the cancellation of planning permission for undeveloped coastal land.
They point out that the seemingly endless building not only destroys irreplaceable natural habitats and wrecks the natural beauty that brought tourists to the islands in the first place, it also massively increases the risk of localised flooding.
Around 80,000 residents are already exposed to coastal flood risk, yet nearly half of flood-prone land is already zoned for housing.
Irma Ferrer, a lawyer for Urban Planning Transparency and Civic Action Against Corruption, points out that this is evidence that the institutions are not functioning as they should. “In urban planning and environmental matters, legislation is not enacted to defend the public interest,” she complains.
She added that the islands now have an economy that is effectively “based on the destruction of the land and on speculation.”
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