In the last four years, the Island Consortium of the La Palma Biosphere Reserve has made a decisive contribution to filling the existing knowledge gaps regarding the marine environment, and has highlighted the reasons and consequences derived from the poor state of conservation that the island’s marine ecosystems in general present, with the exception of the La Palma Marine Reserve. Thus, and as a background to this project, Marcopalma I: Planning and Management System of the Coastal and Coastal Environment of the Island of La Palma was carried out in the period 2009-2010. In this first phase, an in-depth study of the environmental particularities of the coast was carried out. Subsequently, between 2010 and 2012, during Marcopalma II: Use, exploitation and sustainable planning of the marine natural resources of La Palma, the initial information was enriched and updated, incorporating socio-economic data relating to fishing and shellfish resources as well as different human activities and uses that take place on the island’s coast.

At this point, the project is presented: “Partial Territorial Plan for the Planning of the Coast of La Palma. Preliminary studies”, in order to culminate the long process undertaken and capture all the information acquired in a regulatory document that establishes a regulation of the acts of use and interventions, also complying with the guidelines and strategies required in the community and state framework. With the development of the Preliminary Studies of the Partial Territorial Plan for the Planning of the Coast of La Palma, the basic criteria that will govern the delimitation of the homogeneous coastal units will be defined, in order to subsequently establish intervention strategies that are differentially appropriate for each type of coastal section. The aim is to seek a balance between the conservation of biodiversity and marine natural resources, and the exploitation, use and enjoyment of the coastline of La Palma.

Through the participation of the social actors involved and the general public, this project aims to develop management policies that have the greatest possible consensus, thus resolving the conflicts that currently exist between the conservation of marine resources and their exploitation.