Andalucía
Negative environmental report on Sierra Nevada cable car
By m.p.
Dec 12, 2007 - 6:08 PM

The Junta de Andalucía has come out with a negative environmental impact report on a plan to build the longest cable car in the world, which would have run 19 kms from Granada City up to the Pradollano ski resort. The report, by technicians from the Junta’s environmental department for Granada province, says the project would have a direct negative effect on the National Park’s fragile ecosystem and, they said, would endanger the habitat of many threatened species.

The report deems such an infrastructure to be contrary to the basic principles of the law to protect natural spaces and wild flora and fauna, and says it is totally incompatible with a European Union plan of action for the threatened bearded vulture, the quebrantahuesos, which has chosen the Sierra Nevada as one of the areas to reintroduce the species. The visual impact of the structure was also a concern.

The Environment Ministry came out against the project with its own report in October, saying it is incompatible with the objectives of the National Park, and would transform the ecosystem irreversibly.

It now falls to the Junta’s public works department for their decision on whether or not the project can go ahead: something very unlikely given information from the EFE news agency that public works considers it is not an alternative which would improve transport to the ski station, and is not in the public interest.

There’s also the damning conclusion of the environmental report: that there are no compensatory measures which could be introduced to lessen the project’s negative impact on the Sierra Nevada.