The platform, No Más Cemento en Sierra Nevada, which came into being to prevent urban intrusion on the slopes of Sierra Nevada, has raised the voice of alarm.

They are very concerned about the amount of excursionists going up the Sierra Nevada Natural Park during the summer; numbers that they consider “alarming.”

Part of this increased influx of visitors is the drive to get away from crowded places (ironically) on the coast for example. The trouble is that this unusual amount of ‘human presence’ is having an adverse affect on local fauna and flora, not to mention the litter left behind.

They point out that Las Lagunas within the Parque Nacional have had up to twenty tents sprouting next to their unpolluted waters, something that is strictly forbidden.

Other areas under threat are the two peaks of Veleta and Mulhacén, which, in the words of the platform, conjure up images of romerias owing to the streams of people heading up and down from these said peaks.

Furthermore the accumulating litter and the number of parked vehicles on the Hoya de la Mora only emphasises the idea of a “chaotic, disorganised theme park rather than a natural park,” they say.

For all of the above reasons they demand that the competent authorities take steps to enforce the law and environmental regulations so that “such damaging and shameful scenes, such as those of this summer” do not reoccur.

(News: Sierra Nevada, Monachil, Granada, Andalucia)