Tourists having sex in the dunes are ruining Spain’s Maspalomas nature reserve

(CNN) – Over-tourism is often blamed for suffocating historic cities, covering global landmarks with trash, and wiping out local life at tourist spots around the world. Now it is claimed that tourists who have sex are behind the gradual destruction of a beach and a nature reserve in Europe.

The Dunas de Maspalomas Special Nature Reserve, on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, is known for its wild sand dunes that ripple behind its lighthouse perched on the promenade, and regularly tops the lists of things to see on the island.

Its dunes, which have been legally protected since 1982, are one of the last remaining mobile dune systems in Europe and provide a resting place for birds migrating between Africa and Europe.

But now it offers a different kind of resting place, with tourists going to the dunes for fun.

‘Sand, sun, sea and sex with strangers’

A new article in the Journal of Environmental Management – “Sand, sun, sea and sex with strangers, the ‘five S’. Characterizing ‘cruising’ activity and its environmental impacts in a protected coastal dune field” – investigates for the first time the environmental impact on the coastal reserve that is used as a cruising area (having sex with strangers in public places).

The researchers made an inventory of 298 “sex spots” on the beach, in a total area of ​​more than two square miles, mainly between “thick and dense vegetation” and nebkhas, which are dunes that crowd around vegetation. They studied them during May 2018, a period that included the local Gay Pride festival.

The sex of tourists and the “trampling of cruising” impacts “directly” not only on the nebkhas, but also on eight native plant species, three of which are endemic, they found.

Sex ‘nests’ in the dunes

Tourists trample vegetation, remove plants and sand, make their own “nests”, even fences, and dump waste such as cigarettes, condoms, toilet paper, wipes and cans.

They also use the dunes as a bathroom, as the researchers found “places to urinate and defecate.”

The more remote the place of sex, the more it has been used and the more garbage is left there, the researchers noted. Although the authorities leave garbage bags in some of the larger areas, they were usually full.

Even the “no-go zone” of the dunes, which is completely off-limits to the public, while other areas are restricted, was found to have 56 sex spots.

As a result of tourist activities, there has been a “total neglect” of environmental education in the reserve, according to the study. The reserve was originally created with education as a “primary activity”.

What’s more, the giant lizards of Gran Canaria, a popular sight in the Canary Islands, “died after eating condoms left by pleasure seekers,” wrote Patrick Hesp, one of the report’s authors, in an article for The Conversation.

Turistic center

With up to 14 million visitors a year, Gran Canaria is a gay-friendly tourist destination, with visitors from the US, UK and Germany among the top markets. And although the authors are quick to emphasize that “there is no intention of criticizing part of the LGBTI community”, and highlight that not only LGBTQ visitors have sex in the dunes, they point out that “cruising is practiced openly” in Maspalomas.

Coastal dune systems are a crucial part of the seascape, but they have been used to attract tourism around the world, with devastating consequences, the authors write.

“Its degradation, in many cases, has been a direct consequence of the development of tourism,” the publication reads.

As Hesp wrote in his separate article: “We are not calling for an end to public sex, but we want people to be aware of the harm it can cause.”

A couple having sex on the beach, he wrote, is one thing; But having hundreds converging on the same area every day damages the dunes just as much as driving an SUV does.